Alex Dimitrov

Alex Dimitrov

Alex Dimitrov (born November 30, 1984) is an American poet and the founder of Wilde Boys, a queer poetry salon in New York City.[1]

Early life

Dimitrov was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, and raised in Detroit, Michigan. 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 Studies in 2007. In 2009 he received an MFA in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College, where he studied with the poet Marie Howe.[2]

Career

His poems have been published in Poetry,[3] The American Poetry Review, which awarded him the 2011 Stanley Kunitz Prize, The Yale Review,[4] The Kenyon Review,[5] Slate,[6] Tin House, Boston Review,[7] Poetry Daily, and other publications.

In June 2012 Dimitrov released the e-chapbook American Boys, published by Floating Wolf Quarterly. American Boys included poems, childhood photographs, and digital ephemera such as screencaps of text messages and other images from modern methods of communication and connection.[8]

Dimitrov's first full-length book of poems, Begging for It, was published by Four Way Books in March 2013.[9]

In February 2014 Dimitrov launched Night Call, a multimedia poetry project through which he read poems to strangers in bed and online.[10][11] Some of the components of the project included a video and a poem both titled Night Call.

In the fall of 2014 he taught a course titled "Reading and Writing Poetry in the Age of Social Media" at Bennington College in Vermont.

Dimitrov is the Content Editor at the Academy of American Poets[12] and teaches creative writing at Rutgers University in New Brunswick.

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 poets and writers in New York City.[13][14]

Since then, 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.[15]

Dimitrov has also held salons focusing on recovering the work of queer poets Joe Brainard, Tim Dlugos, Leland Hickman and Reginald Shepherd. A salon was also held in honor of the work of Elizabeth Bishop, with special guests Richard Howard and Gabrielle Calvocoressi.[16]

Wilde Boys ended on November 1, 2013.[17]

Bibliography

References

  1. ↑ Huguenin, Patrick (2011-11-02). "The Wilde Boys Salon, for Poetry or Maybe a Hot Date". The New York Times.
  2. ↑ Teicher, Jordan (2011-06-23). "New York writers with MFA begin new chapter with readings and projects". New York Daily News.
  3. ↑ Dimitrov, Alex (2012-1). "Together and by Ourselves". Poetry. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ↑ Dimitrov, Alex (2012-1). "Bloodletting". The Yale Review. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ↑ Dimitrov, Alex (March 2011). "The Composer's Lover". The Kenyon Review.
  6. ↑ Dimitrov, Alex (2012-02-21). "Dear Friend: I have nearly died three times since morning". Slate.
  7. ↑ Dimitrov, Alex (August 2011). "Passage". Boston Review.
  8. ↑ Fitzpatrick, Jameson (2012-06-08). "Slow Lightning, American Boys, Pier Queen". Next Magazine.
  9. ↑ Rathe, Adam (2012-05-22). "Hot List 2012: Alex Dimitrov". OUT Magazine.
  10. ↑ Dimitrov, Alex (2014-02-14). "Night Call". Author's website.
  11. ↑ Certa, Sarah (2014-02-13). "Being in Bed with Strangers: An Interview with Alex Dimitrov". Fanzine.
  12. ↑ "Staff - Poets.org - Poetry, Poems, Bios & More". Poets.org.
  13. ↑ McDaniel, Jeffrey (2012-08-08). "Into the Wilde". Poetry Foundation.
  14. ↑ Schneiderman, Jason (2010-08-04). "Alex Dimitrov, Wilde Boy". Lambda Literary.
  15. ↑ Liptak, Nick (2011-03-18). "The Wilde Boys Read Elizabeth Bishop". The Paris Review.
  16. ↑ Edwards, B.C. (2011-06-16). "The Wilde Boys". BOMB.
  17. ↑ Dimitrov, Alex (2013-11-01). "Wilde Boys". Author's Website.

External links