Alex Mouw is a poet and scholar whose work revolves around nature writing, devotion, and the exchange between formal and free verse poetics. He is the author of the poetry collection The Unbelieving Yelp of Prey (Texas Review Press 2026), an examination of faith and ecology in the Midwest.
Raised in Michigan, Alex earned an undergraduate degree at Hope College, an MFA at Purdue University, and a PhD at Washington University in St. Louis. He is currently completing a second manuscript of poems, titled Conceit, which was a semi-finalist for Terrain.org’s Sowell Emerging Writer’s Prize. His academic book project, Poets Against History: American Lyric and Historiography after 1945, explores how American poets have competed with historians in post-WWII American culture.
His poems appear in The Massachusetts Review, The Southern Review, West Branch, and other literary magazines. His academic work on poetry, religion, and American culture appears in Twentieth-Century Literature, African American Review, and other peer-reviewed publications. His writing has received awards and support from America Magazine, Phoebe Journal, Vassar College, the University of Minnesota, and other institutions. Alex has worked as a visiting assistant professor at Hope College, a Lynne Cooper Harvey Fellow in American Studies at Washington University, an editor, and a writing tutor. Currently an assistant professor of English at Samford University, he lives in Birmingham, Alabama with his wife and two children.
