Kazim Ali

Who is Kazim Ali?

Kazim Ali is an American poet, novelist, essayist and professor. His most recent books are The Disappearance of Seth and Bright Felon: Autobiography and Cities. His honors include an Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council. His poetry and essays have been featured in many literary journals and magazines including The American Poetry Review, Boston Review, Barrow Street, Jubilat, The Iowa Review, West Branch and Massachusetts Review, and in anthologies including The Best American Poetry 2007.

In 2003 he co-founded the independent press Nightboat Books, and served as its publisher from 2004 to 2007, and currently serves as a founding editor.

Ali is an assistant professor of Creative Writing at Oberlin College and teaches in the Stonecoast MFA Program in Creative Writing at the University of Southern Maine. Previously, he taught in the Liberal Arts Department of The Culinary Institute of America, at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, and at Monroe College.

He was born in the UK to parents of Indian descent, and raised in Canada and the United States. Kazim Ali received a B.A. and an M.A. in English Literature from the University at Albany, and an MFA in Creative Writing from New York University.