Dr. David B. Axelrod Profile
Dr. Axelrod holds an M.A. from the Writing Seminars from The Johns Hopkins University, an M.F.A. in poetry from The Writing Workshops at University of Iowa, and a Ph.D. in Program Design and Administration from Union Institute. He moved to Suffolk County, Long Island, where he lived from 1969 to 2009.
In his Long Island years, he became the President of his community association—essentially, the Mayor of North Shore Beach. He served on numerous non-profit boards; founded and directed the non-profit Writer Unlimited Agency, and as its director he helped found or develop or sponsor such groups as the East End Arts Council; Long Island Authors Group; and helped organize and sponsor such events as the Hamptons’ Writers Festival.
He helped start and still serves on the board of the Long Island Poetry and Literature Repository.
He rose to full Professor in the SUNY system and was earmarked to become the first Suffolk County Poet Laureate except for a well-known and documented vendetta by his employer as a reprisal for his starting the SUNY Suffolk College union—the Faculty Association.
When he served as Suffolk County Poet Laureate, he instituted a Young Poets Mentoring Program which fundraised for and published 9 books by young poets as part of Writers Ink Press. Dr. Axelrod retired to Daytona Beach, Florida, in 2009. He is now Volusia County, Florida, Poet Laureate, and is also the director of the non-profit Creative Happiness Institute (CHI)which presents poetry and other cultural programs. He continues to receive grants to mentor and publish young poets.
On a related note, Dr. Axelrod is an honorary Daoist priest and Elder on the board of DaoUSA. In that capacity he teaches “The Healing Power of Writing.”
Dr. Axelrod has had hundreds of poems published internationally in hundreds of magazines and anthologies, as well as twenty-four books of his own poetry.
The newest, twenty-fourth book of poems, The Official Rules for Olympic Bed Riding (Bold Venture Press) will appear as the 2024 Olympic Commemorative Edition.
Dr. Axelrod is a recipient of a gold medal from the Florida 2Book Awards for first place, non-fiction writing for the critical biography, Merlin Stone Remembered which also won a first prize Coalition of Visionary Resources (COVR) Award.
He is the recipient of three Fulbright Awards including his being the first official Fulbright Poet-in-Residence in the People’s Republic of China where he also lectured and studied as guest of the family of the President of China, Deng Xiaoping. Dr. Axelrod has performed at the United Nations and for featured for the American Library Association and shared the stage in performance with such notables as Louis Simpson, Allen Ginsberg, William Stafford, Robert Bly, X. J. Kennedy and Galway Kinnell. He has studied nine languages, and his poetry has been translated into and published in fifteen.
BOOKS LISTED BELOW ARE FOR SALE FROM THE PUBLISHERS, at Barnes & Noble, at Amazon and through a variety of sources. If you wish to purchase a signed &/or personally inscribed copy of a book, please email: axelrod@poetrydoctor.org.
He has some copies of the earliest books and would enjoy hearing from you.
MERLIN STONE REMEMBERED
RUSTING: WAYS TO KEEP LIVING
THE SPEED WAY: POEMS ABOUT NASCAR AND GROWING UP AROUND CARS AND RACING
HOW TO APOLOGIZE
DECIDUOUS POEMS
THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF DREAMS: New Poems
ANOTHER WAY: Poems derived from the Tao Te Ching
RANDOM BEAUTY Edited by Louis Simpson
LOVE IN THE KEYS
THE CHI OF POETRY: NEW AND SELECTED POETRY, 1960-1995
RESURRECTIONS: NEW POEMS
A PERPETUAL CALENDAR OF POEMS
HOME REMEDIES: New & Selected Poems, with introduction by X. J. Kennedy
THE MAN WHO FELL IN LOVE WITH A CHICKEN: Surrealistic poems
A MEETING WITH DAVID B. AXELROD AND IGNAZINO RUSSO
MYTHS, DREAMS, AND DANCES: POEMS 1968-1973 with introduction by Michael Atkinson
STARTING FROM PAUMANOK: Five Long Island Poets
STILLS FROM A CINEMA
HOW TO PUBLISH YOUR POETRY BOOK
WHITE LIES: New Poems
THE END OF THE UNIVERSE: Surrealistic Poems
THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE: POEMS
A DREAM OF FEET: New Poems
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Dr. David B. Axelrod – POETRY DOCTOR