American short-story writer, novelist, and essayist known for his compelling urban tales of whimsy and tragedy.

Michaels was educated at New York University (B.A., 1953) and at the University of Michigan (M.A., 1956; Ph.D., 1966). He began his writing and teaching career in New York City in the early 1960s, then joined the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley, in the 1970s. Many of the stories in his first two volumes of short fiction—Going Places (1969) and I Would Have Saved Them if I Could (1975)—contain bizarre stories of hostile urban life, replete with fantasy, sexual incident, and violence. The tales often centre on Phillip Liebowitz, a young picaresque Jewish American man who finds himself in a series of absurd situations.

In 1981 Michaels published his first novel, The Men's Club (filmed 1986), about a group of middle-aged men who tell each other anecdotes about their wives and lovers. Shuffle (1990) is a poignant book of memoirs of the author's mother, father, and first wife, Sylvia, who committed suicide when their marriage fell apart and who was also the focus of Sylvia: A Fictional Memoir (1992). Michaels also wrote a play, City Boy (produced 1985), and a collection of essays, To Feel These Things (1993). A Girl with a Monkey, a collection of short stories, was published in 2000.