Michelle Hawley is a writer, editor and content strategist based in Pennsylvania. She currently serves as Editorial Director at Simpler Media Group's VKTR, where she covers AI technology, disruption and breaking news, along with managing the site's day-to-day operations and contributing network of writers. She hosts the CMO Circle, a CMSWire TV show where sits down with chief marketing officers from some of today's biggest brands to discuss the latest need-to-know strategies and trends. She's also one of the hosts of CMSWire's CX Decoded podcast. She began with Simpler Media Group as a senior editor in January of 2022.
Michelle's writing career began in elementary school, where she wrote (and illustrated) her own short stories, forcing her mother to type them as she dictated and passing them along to her unwitting school librarian. In the fourth grade, she wrote, typed and circulated her own publication, The Tuesday Review, to her fellow classmates, which included weird facts, school news and a weekly comic.
In high school, Michelle began an online blog, The Book Heist, due to a love of reading — and in an effort to receive free advanced copies of books from publishers. In that time, she had the opportunity to interview a number of her favorite authors and attend the massive NYC-based Book Expo America as a member of the press.
Michelle studied creative writing at Point Park University, during which she worked for Blue Archer, a Pittsburgh-based web design and digital marketing agency. In 2015, she moved to Northeast PA for graduate school at Wilkes University, where she worked as an editor for the literary journal River & South Review, an editorial intern reviewing incoming manuscript submissions for Northampton House Press and a script supervision intern for Resonate Entertainment. She also spent much of her time in the newsroom, working part-time for WKOK, a local news radio station, as well as The Press Enterprise, a county-wide news circulation, covering featured stories along with the crime beat. She earned her MFA in creative writing in 2019.
Prior to joining Simpler Media Group, Michelle spent several years working as a freelance writer and editor. During this time she wrote on a number of topics, from luxury sports cars for Alfa Romero (and daily drivers for Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and RAM), to career advancement with The Ladders and pop culture with Cooler Press. She also ghost wrote for digital marketing companies WebFX and L2T Media and dabbled for a brief time in technical editing with the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. In 2020, Michelle taught two courses on screenwriting and cinema studies at Lycoming College.
Michelle lives and works in Pennsylvania's Susquehanna Valley with her husband, Ray, and two dogs, Porky and Otis. She spends her free time reading, making stained glass, riding her bike and hiking (when it's above freezing outside).
