Mustache in Plain Sight (Tolsun Books, 2022)
“..an important book of poetry because if it vanished from the face of the Earth, there would be nothing at all in the world that could adequately replace it.”
-KYLE FLAK, Southeast Review. Read the full review
"Buckius was born a mustachioed baby. A man-child fashioning himself into a man, he steadies the lens on a "father losing his majesty"—not as some cheap spectacle, but as sustained divination. He draws close to the alchemy of his family and turns his birthright elemental, emerging from the scene of squalor with explicable hankerings, follicles, wit. Buckius demonstrates that if one looks purposefully enough, the patterns of their life might suddenly appear in plain sight."
—LAWRENCE LENHART author of The Well-Stocked and Gilded Cage
Publications
Books
Mustache in Plain Sight. Tolsun Books, March 2022.
Full-length poetry collection.
Chapbooks
better than what. Self-published through a grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, April 2023
Photography and poetry
Future Sarcasm. Tolsun Books, September 2020.
Illustrated chapbook in collaboration with Phoenix artist Doug Bale. Watch the video adaptation here. Read the Sundress Blog review here.
Individual Works
“Mostly Ghosts” and “Feldman” in Rose Books Reader, Vol. 01 - Primal Scream, March 2025, print, purchase here
“Swamp Nurse” in Opt West, January 2024, print
“Dadbox” and “Trout” in 5enses Magazine, May 2023, print and read here
“Mornings Lately” and “Cooking Dinner for Mom” in Hooligan Mag, November 2022, read here and here
“A Miracle” and “Southwest High” in Carbon Copy, Spring 2022, read here
“Whiners from Beyond” in Defunct, Issue 10, Spring 2022, read here
“Mustache Randy” in Quarter After Eight, Volume 28, Spring 2022, print
“Brotherly Love” in Rinky Dink Press, microzine, Spring 2022, print (Pushcart Prize nominee)
“The Inventors” in Triquarterly, Cinepoetry, Issue 161, Winter/Spring 2022, watch here
“Bridge Erotica” and “Brotherly Love” in White Stag Journal, January 2022, print
“Bedside” in The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, July 2021, read here
“Trout” in Qu Literary Magazine, Summer 2021, print and read here
“Glendale” in The Maynard, Spring 2021, read here
“The Fire” in Oracle Fine Arts Review, 2021, print
“Falling” in Inscape, May 2021, print
“The Garden” in Harpy Hybrid Review, October 2020, read here
“Modern Lighting” in Masque and Spectacle, September 2020, read here
“My Teachers K-8” in Write On, Downtown: A Journal of Phoenix Creativity, May 2020, read here
“Howie” in How We Are, Guest Feature, May 2020 read here
“True Apartment Living” in Ghost City Review, January 2019, read here
“Sprouted”, “Friend of a Friend”, and “Buffalo Body” in Shrew Literary Zine, April 2018, read here
“With Time” in The Tempe Starving Artist, May 2011, print
“Staten” and “Home” in Hyphen, 2008, print
Featured Readings
AWP Offsite Reading at Sick City Records (Sick City Records), Feature, Los Angeles, CA, March, 2025
Reading: Mustache in Plain Sight by Michael Buckius (Trident Booksellers and Cafe), Feature, Boulder, CO, May 2022, event link here
Cinder Skies: A High Desert Reading Series (event by NAU MFA Creative Writing Program and the NOAZ Book Festival), Feature, Flagstaff, AZ, Apr 2022
Desert Nights, Rising Stars Literary Fair (with Tolsun Books, event by ASU Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing) Tempe, AZ, Feb 2020
Meet Your Literary Community, performer and exhibitor (event by ASU Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing) Phoenix, AZ, Oct 2019
Northern Arizona Book Festival (with Tolsun Books), Flagstaff, AZ, Sept 2019
Narrow Chimney Reading Series (in conjunction with NAU MFA Creative Writing Program) Flagstaff, AZ, Jan 2019
Caffeine Corridor Poetry Series, Phoenix, AZ, Feb 2018
Press
X-R-A-Y Literary Magazine - Rose Books Reader Vol 1: Group Interview, March 2025, read here
Shoutout Arizona - Meet Michael Buckius | Co-Founder and Program Director at Recovery Center for the Arts, July 2024, read here
5enses Magazine - Michael Buckius, Through the Lens of Anti-Nostalgia, by Dee Cohen, May 2023, print and read here
Southeast Review - Your New Best Friend: A Review of Mustache in Plain Sight by Michael Buckius, by Kyle Flak, October 2023, read here
Sundress Reads: Review of Future Sarcasm - The Sundress Blog, by Shannon Wolf, April 2021, read here
Poets and Muses, Hosted by Imogen Arate, Online Interview, February 2021, listen here
Zines
From time to time, I put together chapbooks and zines of new writing and photography. They are typically limited to between 50-150 copies and can be purchased by contacting me directly or through Wasted Ink Zine Distro, either online or at their physical location at 323 W McDowell Rd, Phoenix, AZ.
Currently Available:
Monsoon (2026, a mini-zine of black and white film photography)
Nobody Calls (2024, color and black and white half-frame double exposure photography and poetry).
better than what (2023, a chapbook of black and white photography and poetry). Self-publication made possible by a grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts.
mommom poempoem daddad (2022, a chapbook of 24 poems). Comes in pink or yellow.
Poems that May Change (2021, a chapbook of 15 poems)
