Michael D. Yates is a writer, editor, and labor educator. He is currently associate editor of Monthly Review magazine and editorial director of Monthly Review Press. He served as professor of economics at University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown from 1969-2001 and adjunct professor of labor studies at UMass-Amherst from 1998-2014. He and his wife Karen Korenoski have been traveling the United States for the past fourteen years. These travels are recounted in his book Cheap Motels and a Hot Plate: an Economist's Travelogue.