Alex Dimitrov
Alex Dimitrov (born November 30, 1984) is an American poet living in New York City.[1]
Early life
Dimitrov is a first-generation immigrant, born in Sofia, Bulgaria, and raised in Detroit, Michigan. His parents fled a communist Bulgaria shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall. He attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he studied with the poet Anne Carson, and received a BA in English and Film in 2007. In 2009 he received an MFA in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College, where he studied with the poet Marie Howe.[2]
Career
Dimitrov is the recipient of the Stanley Kunitz Prize from the American Poetry Review and a Pushcart Prize.[3] He worked at the Academy of American Poets[4] for eight years, where he was the Senior Content Editor and edited the popular online series Poem-a-Day and American Poets magazine.
He has taught writing at Princeton University[5], Columbia University[6], New York University, Barnard College, Sarah Lawrence College, Rutgers University in New Brunswick, Marymount Manhattan College, and Bennington College.
In June of 2012 he published American Boys[7], an online chapbook from Floating Wolf Quarterly. His first book of poems, Begging for It, was published by Four Way Books in March of 2013.[8] His second book of poems, Together and by Ourselves,[9] was published by Copper Canyon Press in April of 2017.
Dimitrov will publish his third book, Love and Other Poems, in February of 2021. The title poem, "Love,"[10] was published in the American Poetry Review in their January/February 2020 issue, which featured Dimitrov on the cover[11].
His poems have appeared in The New Yorker[12], The New York Times[13], The Paris Review[14], Poetry,[15] The Yale Review,[16] The Kenyon Review,[17] American Poetry Review, Slate,[18] Tin House, Boston Review,[19] Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, and other publications.
In February of 2014, Dimitrov launched Night Call, a multimedia poetry project through which he read poems to strangers in bed and online.[20][21] Some of the components of the project included a video and a poem both titled Night Call.
On November 26, 2016, with the poet Dorothea Lasky, Dimitrov founded Astro Poets[22]. Flatiron Books published their book, Astro Poets: Your Guides to the Zodiac in October of 2019.
Wilde Boys
On May 27, 2009, days after graduating from Sarah Lawrence College, Dimitrov founded Wilde Boys, a queer poetry salon that brought together emerging and established writers in New York City.[23][24]
Dimitrov has hosted the following writers: John Ashbery, Frank Bidart, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Henri Cole, CAConrad, Michael Cunningham, Mark Doty, Louise Glück, Jorie Graham, Richard Howard, Marie Howe, Wayne Koestenbaum, Dorothea Lasky, Timothy Liu, Daniel Mendelsohn, Eileen Myles, Carl Phillips, Brenda Shaughnessy, David Trinidad, and Edmund White. Public readings for the salon have included poets Mark Bibbins, Tom Healy, Saeed Jones, Paul Legault, Dante Michaeux, Angelo Nikolopoulos, Jason Schneiderman, and Mark Wunderlich.[25]
Dimitrov has also held salons focusing on the work of queer poets Joe Brainard, Tim Dlugos, Leland Hickman and Reginald Shepherd. A salon was also held in honor of Elizabeth Bishop, with special guests Richard Howard and Gabrielle Calvocoressi.[26]
Wilde Boys ended on November 1, 2013.[27]
Bibliography
- Love and Other Poems, 2021 (Copper Canyon Press)
- Astro Poets: Your Guides to the Zodiac, with Dorothea Lasky, 2019 (Flatiron Books)
- Together and by Ourselves, 2017 (Copper Canyon Press)
- Begging for It, 2013 (Four Way Books)
- American Boys, 2012 (Floating Wolf Quarterly)
References
- Huguenin, Patrick (2011-11-02). "The Wilde Boys Salon, for Poetry or Maybe a Hot Date". The New York Times.
- Teicher, Jordan (2011-06-23). "New York writers with MFA begin new chapter with readings and projects". New York Daily News.
- "Raise Your Glass: Alex Dimitrov's "Cocaine" Wins Pushcart Prize". The Adroit Journal.
- "Staff - Poets.org - Poetry, Poems, Bios & More". Poets.org. Archived from the original on 2012-10-03. Retrieved 2012-08-21.
- "Alex Dimitrov". Lewis Center for the Arts. Retrieved 2020-01-15.
- "Alex Dimitrov". Columbia - School of the Arts. Retrieved 2020-01-15.
- "American Boys -- Alex Dimitrov". floatingwolfquarterly.com. Retrieved 2020-01-15.
- Rathe, Adam (2012-05-22). "Hot List 2012: Alex Dimitrov". OUT Magazine.
- https://www.coppercanyonpress.org/pages/browse/book.asp?bg={7C75AFF0-50F8-4092-9541-A8086404DF0A}
- "American Poetry Review - Alex Dimitrov - "Love"". American Poetry Review. Retrieved 2020-01-15.
- "Vol. 49 No. 1 - Jan/Feb 2020". The American Poetry Review. Retrieved 2020-01-15.
- Dimitrov, Alex (2018-04-23). ""June"". ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2020-01-15.
- "Poems of Resistance: A Primer". The New York Times. 2017-04-21. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-01-15.
- Dimitrov, Alex (2018). "Impermanence". Winter 2018 (227). ISSN 0031-2037. Retrieved 2020-01-15.
- Dimitrov, Alex (January 2012). "Together and by Ourselves". Poetry.
- Dimitrov, Alex (January 2012). "Bloodletting". The Yale Review. Archived from the original on 2013-09-26. Retrieved 2012-08-21.
- Dimitrov, Alex (March 2011). "The Composer's Lover". The Kenyon Review.
- Dimitrov, Alex (2012-02-21). "Dear Friend: I have nearly died three times since morning". Slate.
- Dimitrov, Alex (August 2011). "Passage". Boston Review. Archived from the original on 2012-11-08. Retrieved 2012-08-21.
- Dimitrov, Alex (2014-02-14). "Night Call". Author's website.
- Certa, Sarah (2014-02-13). "Being in Bed with Strangers: An Interview with Alex Dimitrov". Fanzine.
- "Astro Poets (@poetastrologers) | Twitter". twitter.com. Retrieved 2020-01-15.
- McDaniel, Jeffrey (2012-08-08). "Into the Wilde". Poetry Foundation.
- Schneiderman, Jason (2010-08-04). "Alex Dimitrov, Wilde Boy". Lambda Literary.
- Liptak, Nick (2011-03-18). "The Wilde Boys Read Elizabeth Bishop". The Paris Review.
- Edwards, B.C. (2011-06-16). "The Wilde Boys". BOMB.
- Dimitrov, Alex (2013-11-01). "Wilde Boys". Author's Website.