Elizabeth Alexander was born in New York City and grew up in Washington, DC. Her collections of poetry include American Sublime, Antebellum Dream Book, The Venus Hottentot, and Body of Life. She received a B.A. from Yale University, an M.A. from Boston University, and the Ph.D. in English from the University of Pennsylvania.

Alexander has read her poetry and lectured on African-American literature and culture across the country and abroad. Her poems, short stories, and critical writing have been widely published in such journals and periodicals as the Paris Review, American Poetry Review, The Kenyon Review, The Village Voice, The Women’s Review of Books, and The Washington Post. Her poems are anthologized in dozens of collections.

Alexander’s play, “Diva Studies,” was produced at the Yale School of Drama in May 1996. She is also an acclaimed professor who has taught at Haverford College, the University of Chicago, where she won the University’s top teaching prize, and Smith College, where she was Grace Hazard Conkling Poet-in-Residence and first director of the Poetry Center at Smith College. In the summers, she is a faculty member at Cave Canem Poetry Workshop. She presently teaches in the English and African American Studies Departments at Yale University.

Author photo © CJ Gunther

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