Baker Artist Portfolios

Abdul Ali is a poet, writer, and educator. Mr. Ali has held distinguished teaching appointments at Johns Hopkins University, Towson University, and Morgan State University, to name a few. For his literary work, Ali has been recognized by the Robert Deutsch Foundation, Cave Canem Foundation, Sewanee, MD State Arts Council, and the Virginia Center for Creative Arts (VCCA). He is the author of Trouble Sleeping which won the 2014 New Issues Poetry Book Prize selected by Fannie Howe. His poems have been published in numerous literary journals including Copper Nickel, Little Patuxent Review, and Poet Lore, to name a few. Currently, Mr. Ali is at work on his second collection of poems. He currently serves as the Associate Director of Development at Baltimore Arts Realty Corporation (BARCO) and is the founder and principal of The Ali Consultancy.

Here is what Yusef Komunyakka, Pulitzer-Prize winner, said about Trouble Sleeping:

"Abdul Ali's Trouble Sleeping awakens the mind. Like the guts of a marvelous timepiece, the incremental details tick with merciless accuracy and timeless certainty. Urban, gutsy, each poem exposes the conflicts of an inner-city speaker. Yet even in the midst of conflict one believes the voice saying, 'I love the city.' Here, popular culture converges with iconic moments of American history; personal and worldly affairs, and a knowing, practiced music holds Trouble Sleeping together as a needful song."