Early in his life, Blake's family lived in Texas, before moving to southern California, where they moved frequently. He began writing when he was stationed at Walker Air Force Base, when he wrote for the base newspaper. He studied journalism at the University of New Mexico, and later studied at a film school, in Berkeley, California. He also attended Eastern New Mexico University in Portales. In the late 1970s he moved to Los Angeles; during the eighties only one of his screenplays was produced, called Stacey’s Knights. The movie starred Kevin Costner, who later convinced him to write Dances with Wolves, and then a screenplay for the film based on the novel. He has since gone on to do humanitarian work, and continued to write. He has recently begun work on a film adaptation of a sequel to Dances with Wolves.

Michael Blake has one brother, Dan Webb, principal of Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, NM.

Screenplays

• Stacey’s Knights — 1980s
• Dances with Wolves — 1988
• The Holy Road — in process

Novels

• Dances with Wolves — 1986
• Airman Mortensen — 1991
• The Holy Road — 2001
• Marching to Valhalla — 1997

Non-fiction

• Like A Running Dog (Autobiography) — 2002
• Indian Yell - 2006
• Twelve the King - 2009