Elizabeth Alexander is an award-winning American poet, essayist, playwright, university professor, and scholar of African-American literature and culture. She is known for her profound contributions to contemporary literature and academia.

Alexander currently teaches English language/literature, African-American literature, and gender studies at Yale University. Her work has been widely published in esteemed journals and periodicals such as The Paris Review, American Poetry Review, The Kenyon Review, The Village Voice, The Women's Review of Books, and The Washington Post.

She was a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard during the 2007-08 academic year. Her play, Diva Studies, performed at Yale's School of Drama, garnered her a National Endowment for the Arts award.