Education
University of Houston, Houston, TX
Master of Fine Arts in Poetry, May 2026 (anticipated)
Thesis: Controlled Burn: Poems
Committee: Kevin Prufer (Chair), Erin Belieu, and Rachel Hadas
College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA
BA in English with a minor in psychology, May 2023
Honors Thesis: A Journal of Those Times
Thesis advisor: Henry Hart
Research and Teaching Interests
poetry, confessional poetry, Buddhism and poetics, creative nonfiction, formal poetry, prosody, LGBT+ literature
Selected Honors and Awards
Inprint MD Andserson Foundation Fellow, August 2023- May 2026
Winner, Academy of American Poets Eva Burch Prize, May 2023
Second Prize, Tiberius Gracchus Jones Prize for Nonfiction, May 2023
Second Prize, Goronwy Owen Poetry Prize, May 2023
Winner, Society of Virginia Undergraduate Prize, May 2022
Editorial Experience
Gulf Coast, a journal of literature and fine arts, Houston, TX
Assistant Editor, August 2024-May 2026 (Anticipated)
Reader, August 2023- May 2024
Black Fox Literary Magazine
Reader, August 2023-Present
The Plentitudes, A Quarterly International Literary Journal
Senior Poetry Editor, January 2022-December 2025
Reader, 2021-2022
Teaching Experience (2023-2026)
Graduate Teaching Fellow
ENGL 1302 (First Year Writing II / Persuasive Writing)
ENGL 2306 (Introduction to Poetry)
ENGL 2318 (Creation and Performance of Literature)
ENGL 3311 (Beginner Poetry Workshop)
ENGL 6300 (Advanced Poetry Workshop) (Teaching assistant)
Instructor, Inprint Houston
Intensive workshop on the confessional poets
Workshop and Conference Experience
Participant, Bread Loaf Writers Conference (with Paisley Rekdal), August 2025
Contributor, Sewanee Writers’ Conference (with AE Stallings, Paul Tran, Kinsale Drake and Tarfia Faizullah), 2025
Participant, Juniper Writing Conference (with Safia Elhilo)
Poetry Fellow (Offered), Napa Valley Writer’s Conference, July 2025
Participant, Kenyon Review Writers Workshop (with Dan Beachy-Quick)
Selected Readings and Talks
Blue Parlor Series at Bread Loaf Writers Conference, August 2025
Sewanee Reader Series, July 2025
Gulf Coast Reading Series, December 2024
College of William & Mary Literary Awards, May 2023
College of William & Mary Literary Awards, May 2022
Poetry Society of Virginia Winner’s Reception, May 2022
Languages
English (fluent), Thai (intermediate)
Miscellaneous
Private Study in Poetry (2020-2023)
I worked one-on-one with David Lehman, editor of The Oxford Book of American Poetry and series editor for The Best American Poetry, for over two years.
Private Study in Creative Nonfiction (2021)
A six-week intensive where I worked one-on-one with New York Times Bestselling author Marya Hornbacher.
2023 The Academy of American Poets Prize, First Place
Judge’s Comments: “What I admire most in this contemplative, lacerating poem are the flashes of musical brilliance, sonic approximations of the nirvana that the speaker ends up discounting. I imagine Brigit Pegeen Kelly would have adored lines like “I have still // not touched the tip of peace unless it is in the scales / of my pit viper who is as still as a weathered stone.” — Gregg Wren
2023 Tiberius Gracchus Jones Prize for Nonfiction, Second Place
Judge’s Comments: “This braided piece was powerfully-written, thoroughly engaging, and illuminating. By showing us scenes from his apartment and communications with his therapist, Alexander sheds light on what it actually looks like to live with an eating disorder, and just how painstaking the recovery process can be. While the essay is likely publishable on its own, I hope it one day expands into a memoir—one I'd be eager to read.” —Margaret Kimball
2023 Goronwy Owen Poetry Prize, Second Place
Judge’s Comments: “Alexander Lazarus Wolff explores different forms, voices, and cadences in this group of poems with such intensity and grace. I especially admire ‘Lines Written in an Empty Room’ with its imperative and its intimacy, and how each poem feels like its own world, full of soundscape and sudden sharp images.”— Laura Bylenok
2023 Williamsburg Book Award Festival, Third Place
2022 Goronwy Owen Poetry Prize, Third Place
Judge’s Comments: “I liked this collection of poems because it demonstrates the poet is a student of the craft, and it deploys a mature use of diction. These poems express a vulnerability that resonates without drifting into sentimentality.” —Glenn North
2022 The Academy of American Poets Prize, Second Place
“I admire this poem for its ambition, duration, and candor. Moreover, the form and structure of this poem make a valuable container, able to hold the intensity of experience. This poem is deeply rich in imagery and so well balanced between the world of the mind and the world this mind encounters. This is not an easy poem to write, and yet here it is! A success.”—Alicia Mountain
2022 Poetry Society of Virginia Undergraduate Prize, First Place
Phi Theta Kappa (2019)