Will Alexander (born 1948) is a poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, and visual artist. He was the recipient of a Whiting Fellowship for Poetry in 2001 and a California Arts Council Fellowship in 2002. Over the years he has worked several jobs (including the LA Lakers box office), taught at various institutions, and has been associated with the nonprofit organization Theatre of Hearts/Youth First, working with underserved, at-risk youth.

Alexander’s poetry and his visual art have been greatly influenced by his readings of Bob Kaufman

Bob Kaufman

Bob Kaufman , born Robert Garnell Kaufman, was an American Beat poet and surrealist inspired by jazz music. In France, where his poetry had a large following, he was known as the "American Rimbaud."-Biography:...

, Octavio Paz

Octavio Paz

Octavio Paz Lozano was a Mexican writer, poet, and diplomat, and the winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize for Literature.-Early life and writings:...

, and Francophone Negritude

Négritude

Négritude is a literary and ideological movement, developed by francophone black intellectuals, writers, and politiciansin France in the 1930s by a group that included the future Senegalese President Léopold Sédar Senghor, Martinican poet Aimé Césaire, and the Guianan Léon Damas.The Négritude...

 writers such as Aimé Cesaire

Aimé Césaire

Aimé Fernand David Césaire was a French poet, author and politician from Martinique. He was "one of the founders of the négritude movement in Francophone literature".-Student, educator, and poet:...

 and Jean-Joseph Rabéarivelo. Alexander describes their themes of cosmic isolation from society and interior discovery as an “alchemical metamorphosis.” Much of Alexander’s work is characterized by this powerful mix of metaphor and sophisticated language.

Works

• Vertical Rainbow Climber. Jazz Press, 1987
• Archane Lavender Morals. Leave Books, 1994
• The Stratospheric Canticles. Pantograph Press, 1995
• Asia & Haiti. Sun & Moon Press, 1995
• Above the Human Nerve Domain. Pavement Saw Press, 1998
• Towards the Primeval Lightening Field. O Books, 1998
• Exobiology as Goddess. Manifest Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780967388588
• Sunrise In Armageddon. Spuyten Duyvil Press. 2006. ISBN: 9781933132174
• The Sri Lankan Loxodrome. New Directions Publishing, 2010
• Compression & Purity (City Lights, 2011). ISBN: 9780872865419
• Diary As Sin. Skylight Press, 2011. ISBN: 9781908011138
• Inside the Earthquake Palace: 4 Plays. Chax Press, 2011. ISBN: 9780925904898
• Kaleidoscopic Omniscience: The Stratospheric Canticles / Asia & Haiti / Impulse & Nothingness. Skylight Press, 2012. ISBN: 9781908011497

External Links

• Sound recordings of Will Alexander's verse published in the University of Pennsylvania's poetry archive, PennSound
• Review of Diary As Sin published in The Prague Post