Alexandra Burack

Alexandra (she/her/hers) is a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet, editor, writing coach, and college professor with over 40 years of expertise in multi-genre creative and scholarly writing. She is the author of the poetry chapbook On the Verge (Plinth Books), and her poems have appeared in The Sewanee Review, The Blue Mountain Review, Broad River Review, ORLANDO, Roi Fainéant, Ink & Marrow, $ Poetry is Currency, FreezeRay Poetry, Poetica Magazine, Ontario Review, Chelsea, Flyway, Tar River Poetry, Northeast Corridor, Araby, and CT River Review, among other venues. Her full-length manuscript earned quarter-finalist status in the 2023 Able Muse Award competition, was long-listed in 2023 at Regal House Publishing and Small Harbor Press, and is currently under consideration at independent presses and competitions.

​

She is the recipient of a 2024 AZ Commission on the Arts Artist Opportunity Grant, and a former CT Commission on the Arts Artist Fellow in Poetry. She earned grants for poetry and literary programming from the Ludwig Vogelstein and Haymarket Foundations, the Middletown (CT) Commission on the Arts, and the U.K.’s Poetry Society, and was the only poet to have won First Place in the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Community Health Promotion Grant program.

​

Alexandra’s work on literary publications includes serving as Founding Editor of Lumina, Invert, Words of Women, and Writings From the Wall; Co-Editor of Women in Hartford, The Hammonasset Literary Magazine, and The Bailey Bulletin; and Guest Assistant Editor of The Bound Spiral (U.K.), and Artemis.

She is a passionate and indefatigable writing coach and editor of poetry and fiction manuscripts, screenplays, and scholarly and journalistic writing. Her clients have achieved consistent publication and won awards in the U.S. from Screamcraft, The Small Press, and the Arts Commissions of CT, MA, and NY, and in the U.K. from The Poetry Society, Nine Arches Press, and Sheffield Thursday. She is equally dedicated to established and emerging poets/writers in their search for support, guidance, and effective critical feedback in the preparation of works for publication.

​

A progressive educator grounded in critical consciousness, Prof. Burack earned an Honors BA in Sociology/Women’s Studies, the MFA in Writing/Teaching of Writing, and is a former MSW candidate and PhD student in Narrative Medicine/Medical Sociology. She remains engaged in professional growth and earned the AZ Master Teacher designation in 2014, and ACUE Certification in 2021. Her notable pedagogical innovations include Ekphrastica, a collaboration between poets/writers and visual and performing artists, and The Question Tree, a critical consciousness-based paradigm for the teaching of composition and research.

​

Prof. Burack currently serves as Adjunct Professor of Creative Writing at Chandler-Gilbert Community College (AZ), and as a professional tutor with FocusTutorsAZ for students in grades 8-12 in reading, writing, and academic success skills. She is a proud volunteer Poetry Reader for The Los Angeles Review, and a writing mentor for graduates of the Maricopa County Community College District who continue studies and personal work in creative writing.