Poet/fiction writer/essayist Alina Stefanescu was born in Romania and lives in Birmingham, Alabama with her partner and several intense mammals. My Heresies, a poetry collection, was published by Sarabande in late April 2025. Other recent books include a creative nonfiction chapbook, Ribald (Bull City Press Inch Series, 2020) and Dor, which won the Wandering Aengus Press Prize (September 2021). Her debut fiction collection, Every Mask I Tried On, won the Brighthorse Books Prize (April 2018). Stefanescu’s poems, essays and fiction can be found in Prairie Schooner, North American Review, World Literature Today, Pleiades, Poetry, BOMB, Crab Creek Review and others. She serves as editor, reviewer and critic for various journals and is currently working on a novel-like creature.

The Visiting Writers Reading Series is sponsored by the Department of English, the Office of the Provost and Dean of the Faculty, the Lawrence Parke Murphy and Robert Goldstein Trust, and by generous donations from the extended Whitman community.