Iris Underwood

Born in Matewan, West Virginia, and raised in Metro Detroit, Iris Lee Underwood, granddaughter of Floyd and Ollie McCoy, is a Michigan award-winning journalist, poet, and author. She’s a past president of Detroit Working Writers (2003-2005), writer in residence for the former Borders Bookstores (1997-2009) and the Troy Public Library, Troy, Michigan (1998-2013). Underwood writes a weekly column for the Tri-City Times, Imlay City, MI.

Her byline also appeared in The MacGuffin, Farming Magazine, Woods & Water, Michigan Gardener, edibleWOW, Michigan History Magazine, and Kentucky and West Virginia newspapers. She self-published Encouraging Words for All Seasons (2001), Growing Lavender & Other Poems (2007), and The Mantle, a novel (2018). Brandylane Publishers, Richmond, VA, published Matewan Garden Club, historic fiction, in May 2023.

From 2004-2014, Underwood owned and operated Yule Love It Lavender Farm in north Oakland County. She taught the many benefits of growing lavender in venues throughout the Metro-Detroit area and Lapeer County.

She’s a long-term member of the Friends of Herbs who maintain the herb garden on the grounds of Seven Ponds Nature Center.

To encourage the art of poetry, Underwood sponsors the annual Yule Love It Lavender Farm Poetry Contest. She resides in north Oakland Country with her husband, cats, hens, and honeybees.