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Alpay Ulku is an American poet.

Life
Born in Ankara, Turkey, Ulku grew up in Canada and England. Ulku earned his B.A. at the University of Redlands in 1986 and an M.F.A. at University of Iowa in 1988. He married the writer Anne-Marie Gallagher in 1989 and became a US citizen in 2002.

Books and Awards
Ulku has received awards from Millay Collony, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, and the Fine Arts Work Center. Pulitzer Prize Winner Yusef Komunyakaa wrote the introduction to Ulku's first book, Meteorology, which was published by BOA Editions and selected as a "Notable Debut" by the Academy of American Poets. Wrote Komunyakaa: Ulku is a master of juxtaposition. He plants little imagistic depth charges along the way. He seems to be aware of how one phrase lives beside another, how this dualism changes the whole picture -- like musical notes. The silence. The said. The Space. The pace. And, in this sense, he knows that the brain will leap forth to create a connection. Ulku orchestrates and controls the tension in each poem. Here's a young poet who knows what to leave out, what to sacrifice without making his poetry oblique.