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Alexander Long-Poet, b. 1972

Alexander Long is an American poet raised in Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania, where he attended Holy Spirit Elementary School. From 1986 to 1990 he attended Monsignor Bonner High School in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania. In 1990, he enrolled at West Chester University, where he initially declared himself as an Economics major. After earning a GPA of 1.7 in his first semester, he changed his major to English, with a Creative Writing minor. It was during his time at West Chester University that he enrolled in Creative Writing classes with the American poet Christopher Buckley. Fellow classmates included poets Timothy Geiger, Kate Northrop, and Karen Skolfield. In 1994, Long graduated with a BA in English.

After graduating from West Chester University, Long worked a series of jobs, including fry cook, bartender, sous chef, and obituary writer.

In 1996, he applied to several graduate-level Creative Writing programs. He was accepted into the MFA program of Creative Writing at Western Michigan University in 1997. At Western Michigan University, he studied with poets Herbert Scott, William Olsen, Nancy Eimers, and Mary Ruefle; as well as creative non-fiction writer J. D. Dolan; fiction writers Stuart Dybeck and Jaimy Gordon; and Dickinson scholar and poet Daneen Wardrop. Fellow MFA and PhD candidates included Bonnie Jo Campbell, Metta Sama, Jamie D'Agostino, Karen Carcia, Marcel Brouwers, Becky Cooper, Matt Hollrah, Regina Wilkins, Anne Moore O'Dell, and Scott Bade. While at Western Michigan University, Long worked as an assistant to Herbert Scott at New Issues Press and first as assistant editor and then as poetry editor of Third Coast magazine. Long earned his MFA in 2000.

In 2000, he was accepted into the Writing Seminars at the Johns Hopkins University, where he studied with Andrew Hudgins, Greg Williamson, and John Irwin. Fellow poets included Beth Bachmann, Jason Gray, and Elizabeth Hazen.

In 2002, he began doctoral studies in English at the University of Delaware, where he studied with poets Fleda Brown, Jeanne Walker-Murray, and Marilyn Nelson; as well as literary theorist Steven Helmling. Brown and Helmling served as co-directors of Long's dissertation, a study of mutual influence between the work of American poets Philip Levine and Larry Levis. Long earned his PhD in 2006.

From 2005-2007, he was a Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at West Chester University, and from 2007-2008, he was a Visiting Professor of Writing at Philadelphia University. In 2008, he accepted a position as Assistant Professor of English at John Jay College, CUNY, where he currently teaches.

Long's books include Vigil (New Issues Poetry & Prose, Western Michigan University Press, 2006); Light Here, Light There (C & R Press, 2009); and Still Life (White Pine Press, 2011). Long has also published four chapbooks: Six Prose Poems (Brandenberg Press, 2006), Still Life (Center for Book Arts, 2010), Lunch with Larry (Q Avenue Press, 2014), and The Widening Spell (Q Avenue Press, 2016).