“A selection panel ranked candidates according to their ‘poetry,’ ‘acclaim’ and ‘commitment.’ Axelrod won handily.”   New York Times  

“These poems movingly explore both the highs and the lows of the family drama and of the down-to-earth variety of everyday experience. Axelrod is tender, angry, playful and vulnerable. As he says in one gentle love poem, ‘So many pieces to the heart.’”   Hugh Seidman    

Praise for His Recent Poetry  

“One of the finest and most original American poets now writing.”    X. J. Kennedy   

“Whether Axelrod is reliving a moment of pleasure, or a time of bitterness and pain, the truth of his poetry is like life itself—compelling.”      Louis Simpson

ABOUT THE AUTHOR          

            Raised a Boston Red Sox fan in Beverly, Massachusetts, Dr. David B. Axelrod is still hesitant to call himself a New Yorker. Yet, he is definitely a Long Islander after thirty-eight years on the North Shore—where he has raised four children, sponsored hundreds of writers, performances, conferences and assisted in founding numerous arts and writing groups.

            Since 1976, he has directed the nonprofit, educational organization, Writers Unlimited Agency, Inc. (writersunlimited.org) and Writers Ink Press, publisher of thirty-six titles.  He directs 3WS, World Wide Writers Services (poetrydoctor.org).

            Dr. Axelrod is a three-time Fulbright Scholar and the first official Fulbright Poet-in-Residence in China . He holds a bachelor’s from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst , a master’s from The Writing Seminars at The Johns Hopkins University, a master of fine arts degree from The University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a doctorate from Union Institute & University. 

             Poems from his eighteen books have been translated into fourteen languages, and he has performed internationally including at the United Nations and for the American Library Association. Named Suffolk County Poet Laureate in 2007, Dr. Axelrod serves as the arts ambassador for nearly 1.5 million residents of the largest county in New York State .