Alex Dimitrov

I'm Always Thinking About You, America

2012-02-06T22:55:00.003-05:00

I wrote a new poem for the new issue of Ana Božičević and Amy King's esque magazine. This issue is REVOLUTIONesque. My poem is, "I'm Always Thinking About You, America." Click here to read it.

Below is a draft of Allen Ginsberg's "Falling Asleep in America," from May 5, 1969.

Frank O'Hara's Queer Litter

2012-02-03T23:17:00.005-05:00

I'm reading in Philadelphia tomorrow at Giovanni's Room, part of an event called Frank O'Hara's Queer Litter, curated by CA Conrad. Here's what I'll be reading:

Wilde Boys salon with Henri Cole

2012-01-28T13:47:00.003-05:00

Guest of a Guest covers the Wilde Boys salon with Henri Cole on January 16. Click here to read.

In The New York Times

2011-11-17T21:13:00.005-05:00

The Wilde Boys salon and I were recently profiled in The New York Times. Click here to read the article by Patrick Huguenin.

Marie Howe and Alex Dimitrov (photo: Benjamin Norman)

Evening

2011-10-24T00:33:00.004-04:00

I have a new poem - "Evening" - in the 17th issue of Memorious: A Journal of New Verse and Fiction. Click here to read it.

Jenny Holzer, "It Is In Your Self-Interest To Find A Way To Be Very Tender," from the Survival Series, 1983-85, New York

"Darling" in The American Poetry Review

2011-10-12T20:10:00.011-04:00

From the September/October 2011 issue of The American Poetry Review.

Darling

The days fall out of your pockets one after the other.
Soon you’ll need a new jacket with tougher leather

and seams no one has felt. Soon you’ll bring
the old books into your bed and sleep easy

and alone. It must be December again.
This must be the part of the story where you

refuse to say how the bodies you’ve walked toward
continue walking in you. With heavy black boots

in a calm procession of darling and honey—
they walk up and down the narrow streets of your heart.

On Andrew Sullivan's The Dish

2011-10-02T16:51:00.004-04:00

Thank you to Andrew Sullivan for posting my poem, "Passage," on his blog The Dish on The Daily Beast. Click here to check it out.

Interview featured on The Poetry Foundation

2011-09-19T23:20:00.011-04:00

The Poetry Foundation excerpted a short portion of an interview I recently did - click here to read it.

Paris, July 2010

In L Magazine

2011-09-19T23:13:00.004-04:00

I talked to L Magazine about my poems, New York, Madonna, and who I want to sleep with. Click here to read the short interview.

"This Is Not A Personal Poem" on Jupiter 88

2011-08-13T03:46:00.005-04:00

Check out this video of me reading my new poem, "This Is Not A Personal Poem", on CA Conrad's video journal of contemporary poetry, Jupiter 88. Many thanks to him for inviting me.

Click here to watch - JUPITER 88: #54: Alex Dimitrov

Poetry Daily - "Passage"

2011-08-11T01:06:00.003-04:00

Thank you to Poetry Daily for featuring my poem "Passage" (from the August 2011 issue of the Boston Review) on July 26. Click here to read it.

Stanley Kunitz Prize

2011-07-24T13:53:00.008-04:00

I received a nice surprise last week. Thanks to the American Poetry Review for awarding me the 2011 Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prize for my poem, "Darling." The poem will be published on their feature page (the backcover) in the Sept/Oct issue. Click here to check out the official announcement.

In the New York Daily News

2011-06-24T18:57:00.006-04:00

Jordan Teicher profiled me as one of the young writers in his piece, "New York writers with MFA begin new chapter with readings and projects" for the New York Daily News. Click here to check it out.

Reading at the Wilde Boys louderARTS feature, June 2011, NYC

The Poetry Foundation on Wilde Boys

2011-06-24T18:45:00.005-04:00

The Poetry Foundation recently blogged about the Wilde Boys. "Dimitrov, a young poet who works for the Academy of American Poets and often writes for Poets & Writers (we also hear he’s got a joint Twitter account with fellow fire sign Dorothea Lasky — see @firesigns4life), talks about his guests..." Click here to check it out.

Alex Dimitrov, May 2010, NYC

Wilde Boys in BOMB

2011-06-24T18:37:00.003-04:00

"I’d take a bullet for Oscar Wilde. I think Oscar would have loved the salon. He would have slept with everybody." B.C. Edwards writes on the second anniversary of the Wilde Boys salons for BOMBLOG. Click here to check it out.

Oscar Wilde

Wilde Boys in the Paris Review

2011-03-25T14:56:00.005-04:00

The Paris Review covers the Wilde Boys salon on queering Elizabeth Bishop, with Richard Howard, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, and me. Click here to check it out.

With Gabrielle Calvocoressi and Richard Howard at the Elizabeth Bishop Wilde Boys salon, March 2011

Wilde Boys in BUTT magazine

2011-01-11T00:41:00.005-05:00

The Wilde Boys queer poetry salon makes Lonely Christopher's Superlist in BUTT Magazine. Click here to check it out.

With Anne Carson at the John Ashbery Wilde Boys salon, Nov 2010

NEXT magazine on Wilde Boys

2011-01-08T11:51:00.004-05:00

NEXT magazine covers the Wilde Boys queer poetry salons in 2010 (Doty, Bidart, Ashbery) and previews the 2011 season with Edmund White and Michael Cunningham. I also hint at what can be done with poetry in the bedroom. Click here to check it out.

Fire Sign, New York, 2011

From the Fishouse

2010-10-24T18:28:00.006-04:00

From the Fishouse, an audio archive of emerging poets, recently put up seven of my new poems. You can hear me read each poem and I also answer some questions about finding time to write and how I came to poetry. Click here to check it out.

Smoking a cigarette with Rimbaud in Paris

James Franco poem

2010-10-06T18:39:00.003-04:00

Lambda Literary recently published my poem about James Franco. Inspired by his performance in Howl, myth, and a whole lot of excess. Click here to read it.

Lambda Literary on Wilde Boys

2010-08-12T19:19:00.003-04:00

Lambda Literary covers the one year anniversary of the Wilde Boys queer poetry salons. Jason Schneiderman asks me about all things Wilde, New York, and literary: click here to read.

Topping Proust in Paris

The Fates

2010-08-12T19:15:00.002-04:00

Click on text to enlarge.

(published in Southwest Review, Volume 95, Number 3, Fall 2010)

Heroines

2010-06-13T13:20:00.028-04:00

Click on text to enlarge.

(published in H.O.W. Journal, Issue 6, Spring-Summer 2010)

2010-05-15T06:35:00.011-04:00

(published in The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide, Volume 17, Issue 9, January-February 2010)

White Fire

2010-01-02T17:33:00.011-05:00

To describe how rain touches morning in Iceland—
where St. Christopher often leads travelers
in spring—is to cross the impossible
bridge between water to drink
and water that drowns.

If you’re lonely enough, if you listen,
the wind will convince you, in its human-like
sadness—to open the windows
and let something in.

Watch as it lifts above the ice—
the unforgiving element—white
fire.

Remember, you too know something
about snow's passage to water:

how everything trembles when moving
from one form to another—how soon,
it is water that slicks your eye—
each lash burning
to put the fire out.

- Alex Dimitrov

"White Fire" was printed as a broadside, in an edition of 100 by The Center for Book Arts in New York City, in October of 2009. To purchase a broadside click here.

(published in Best New Poets 2009, and diode, Fall 2009 )

The Crucifix

2010-01-02T17:33:00.006-05:00

It hung from his neck in a kind and devastating way—
hidden under his shirt and apron, wait staff uniform
then blazer, when he finally found a good desk job.

Walking through the living room after work
he’d slowly loosen the knot of his tie, teasing it
with his fingers and unbuttoning that top button

every man must hate so much.
From there it took him only seconds
until the cotton trailed behind his back,

shirt fully undone, allowing me to notice
the tense drops of sweat which ran down from his armpits,
the stains forming delicate rings around his sleeves.

And when he sat down on the couch
to rest his head back, Adam’s apple
sharply gleaming, palms left open on his thighs—

I’d stare at that gold crucifix which sank so low,
our Jesus buried deep inside his chest hair,
closer to my father than I ever got

and claiming the best part.

- Alex Dimitrov

(published, in a previous version, in Harpur Palate, Volume 8.2, Winter 2009)

American Youth

2010-01-02T17:32:00.007-05:00

That first summer my father spent more time
driving to work than he did sleeping,

and my mother wrote postcards all day
to everyone back home, people she never liked,

even they were needed, she said, to pass the time,
to live through the hours we had to fill with

English lessons––every day a new word, then phrases,
and finally sentences that spoke of nothing

no matter how many times they repeated in our ears.
I’d leave the house sometime after lunch

to sit on the sidewalk and imagine
that one of the cars driving by was my father’s.

And everyday there I watched the neighborhood
kids playing, watched them tirelessly until dark,

trading cards with each other, toy guns.
I watched them live out my American youth.

- Alex Dimitrov

(published in Crab Orchard Review, Volume 14, Number 2, Summer/Fall 2009)