About Me

Alex Gurtis is the author of the chapbook When the Ocean Comes to Me (Bottlecap Press, 2024). He is an assistant editor for Burrow Press, a reader for Boulevard and the Florida Review, and runs an occasional interview series at Barrelhouse.

A ruth weiss Foundation Maverick Poet Award Finalist and a winner of Saw Palm’s 2022 Florida Fauna and Flora contest, Alex received his MFA from the University of Central Florida. His work as a poet and critic has appeared in or is forthcoming in anthologies and publications such as Barrelhouse, HAD, Heavy Feather Review, and West Trade Review among others.

The former founder and owner of Zeppelin Books, an independent bookstore in Downtown Orlando, Alex is an avid believer in community and leaving the world a little better than he found it. He is a co-founder of the Literary Arts Council of Central Florida, serves on the board of the Kerouac Project of Orlando and is often found at the intersection of writing and place making. You can follow him on Instagram @apbg_alex and Substack,