Elias Tobias is a poet, and author of the World of Worlds by Elias Tobias at eliastobias.net. Elias Tobias is the pseudonym of Michael D. Hall, who has been writing poetry and short stories since his youth. He moved to Indianapolis in September 2007 after living in Texas for 16 years as a educator and journalist. He went to Indianapolis, Indiana, where his wife, started a new job with her company, Arbor E & T.

After working part-time as an adjunct English instructor for three years and full-time for nearly a years as a Direct Support Professional in a group home for the physically and mentally handicapped, in April 0f 2010, he became a business service representative with Arbor E & T, a company hired by the State of Indiana to operate the IMPACT program for the people on the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). His job is to help those on state assistance find jobs.

The World of Words has been in around since 1998, and recently moved to a new host where it was redesigned into a blog format to take advantage of audio and video capacities.

The beginning

Hall was born Aug. 17, 1956 in Corona, Calif. and had first poems published in high school. He graduated from Columbus North High School (Columbus, Ind.) in 1975. Hall graduated from Ball State University,in Muncie, Ind., with Bachelor’s Degree in photojournalism in 1979, and had his first newspaper job in 1980. He continued writing and entering contests, having poems published in various anthologies. (see Publishing credits).

Hall graduated from Ball State University, in Muncie, Ind., with Master’s Degree in photojournalism in 1983. He later started a two-year Teachers License program at Ball State University, and finished 1991, when he decided to use Elias Tobias as a pen name, He started Ball State Literary Foundation, a computerized on-line poetry and short story magazine on the university computer system. While at school he met Patty Webb, a student in non-traditional student/foreign student dorm, and they were married July 17, 1993.

Hall left a career in education with his last position at Los Fresnos Consolidated ISD, in Los Fresnos, Texas, where he was an eighth grade English/Language Arts teacher from August 1999 to May 2000. He was also the UIL One Act Play director.
Hall started as English teacher with Brownsville ISD in 1991 at James Pace High School in as an English teacher and yearbook adviser. He used his own poetry to teach the poetry units by self-publishing “A Poetry Sampler- 100% Natural Words,” that year.

Most of his time as a teacher was at Faulk Middle School, from August 1992 to June 1999 as an English teacher. The first two years at Faulk Middle School, he taught six classes of 8th grade English, with an emphasis on writing and the writing process, along with grammar incorporated. He moved to sixth grade when the school became a middle school and taught Gifted and Talented class last five years.

He was also the UIL One Act Play director and founder/sponsor of High Tech Zoomers GT Club. He also was an adjunct English instructor at the University of Texas-Brownsville, Brownsville, Texas, from January 1993 to December 1995.

He was a copy editor for more than three years at the Brownsville Herald, Brownsville, Texas. He was responsible for page design for daily pages, the Valley Business section and the cover of Valley/State section. He wife had accepted a promotion in Laredo, and he became the Business editor for the Laredo Morning Times. He was responsible for improving the weekly publication of a 16-page business journal  that covered all aspects of business of Laredo and Webb County, including  the writing, editing, photography and layout/design of the publication.

Hall has worked for as a reporter, writer and photographer for several weekly and daily publications in Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Ohio and Indiana. He received the Small Business Administration regional Journalist of the Year in May of 2006. In October 2004, he received the Jim Parrish Media Award by the Laredo Chamber of Commerce for the 2003-2004 fiscal year and in November 2004 he received Special Recognition Award for Print Media by the South Texas Workforce Development Board. In December of 2002, he received the Brownsville Herald All-Star Award - one of 12 individuals/teams honored for performance. In February 1998, he was included in the Outstanding Young Men of America, biography in the 1998 edition.

Also see the life of Elias Tobias unfold before your eyes in this photo biography video. To see it, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMIVXPumbhk .