editor & poet
transformational writing coach
Alexandra Barylski, M.A. (Yale University) is the Executive Editor of theMarginalia Review of Books, where she is the Director of Publications and Project Manager at the Institute for the Meanings of Science. She is currently managing the Institute’s Meanings of Life Project: The New Biology, which is supported by the Templeton World Charity Foundation. She is also the Poetry Peddler, and a Founder of The Writing College, (EST. 2020) with Yale-trained philosopher, writer, and applied ethicist, Samuel Loncar, Ph.D , to create a solution for the crisis of human language in an AI age.
At Marginalia, she works with the world’s leading scholars, writers, scientists, and artists, editing and curating their work for over 150,000 readers and directs the publications events for the Meanings of Science Institute. At Yale Divinity School, she studied with Christian Wiman, former Editor of Poetry. She has taken poetry workshops with poet and critic, Alicia Ostricker and poet, MacArthur Fellow (1997), and president of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Edward Hirsch. In 2018, she was the Kenyon College Peter Taylor Fellow for Guggenheim Fellow (2017), poet, and writer, Afaa Weaver.
Alex is an award-winning poet, a deep literacy advocate, and a transformational writing coach for women. Her poetry has won competitions and awards, including the Morton Marcus Poetry Prize. She holds a B.A. in Secondary Education and Literature and Language Arts and two Master’s degrees in Literature.
At The Writing College, she teaches reading and writing as spiritual technologies. Her method is based on two decades of experience teaching and researching in writing labs, middle and high schools, liberal arts universities, technical colleges, and writing programs for emotionally disabled children and adults. In 2016, she received her 200-hour YTT from her yoga instructor, Kirtan Smith, who grew up in ashrams and received instructions from one of Brazil’s foremost Hatha Yoga masters, Regina Shakti. Her workshops and guided writing practices integrate the mind, spirit, and body.
Writers who work with Alex have published in major academic presses, leading journals, and news outlets like The Washington Post and TheNew York Times. Young women writers (under 18) who work with her have reached audiences over 20K with their writing, been awarded the Scholastic Silver Key for non-fiction, and been selected for the TheNew York Times summer academy.
“Many women know that they want to be mothers from the time they are little girls, but I never saw myself as having the name of mother. Even though being a mother is incredibly noble and the most important profession, I couldn’t see myself in that role. Then I found myself unexpectedly pregnant in my late 30s.
I was thrilled, but also terrified because I was about to become what I had never particularly envisioned for my life: a mother. The very thing I feared and worried over was about to happen to me in nine months. I could do to stop the feelings of inadequacy and concern. I needed guidance to work throw overwhelming waves of doubt and fear. I felt like I was going to die because I knew subconsciously, the version of me I had known my whole life was approaching an end, and I felt desperate for help to navigate this transformation.
Our first session went so well, and Alex made me feel entirely at ease and had the perfect comments and questions to prompt me to deeper and more powerful observations of my own heart and mind. Alex listened to my narratives and guided me through my thought processes with her “verbal drafting and revision method,” allowing me to real-time, edit, revise, and change deeply ingrained patterns of thought. The philosophical tools and techniques she used helped me access the truth, and express what felt unsayable. Thoughts came out that I didn't even realize I had, and she gave me space to process and work through them.
By the time I reached my due date, I had had months to consciouly transition from a state of fear and doubt into a state of hope and confidence. I was no longer afraid of the transition into motherhood. I would be better for it, and I was. Becoming a mom was a new beginning for me and the start of the most meaningful work of my life. Alex saw the beauty of this monumental transformation in my identity, and she gave me the insights and tools to flourish through it.”
- Elizabeth C, NJ, co-owner and operator of Honeysuckle Nectary.
Necessities of Mending takes place between the moment a woman knows that she is in sudden and dire need of being put back together and the dawning insight that what felt stagnant has been full of forward motion after all. This period is lonely and difficult, full of uncertainties, but ultimately it is a joyful space where one can finally say: I am on the mend.
Karen Swallow Prior, reader, writer, and speaker:
from, “An Academic in Exile”
Read The New Yorker’s profile on Karen Swallow Prior
Selected Publications
“When Truth Finds a Home: In The Shelter by Pádraig O Tuáma” Marginalia Review of Books
“Poetry and The Living Image” University of Arizona Poetry Center
“Poetry for Grownups: The Responsible Self in Molly Spencer’s If the House” Marginalia Review of Books
“What Speaks to Crisis: The Poetry of the Soul” University of Arizona Poetry Center
"Poetry, Bodies, & Stillness: A Conversation with Ocean Vuong" Marginalia Review of Books, featured in Poetry
"The Dove that Returns" University of Arizona Poetry Center
"Poetry Is A Body In Pain" University of Arizona Poetry Center
"Poems Are Places of Worship" University of Arizona Poetry Center
“Fearfully and Wonderfully Made" Marginalia Review of Books
“Poetry is Incarnational” University of Arizona Poetry Center
“People of the Tomb” Ruminate Magazine
"After Years Without Speaking" Reflections
"Motherhoods" Letters Journal
"On Asking a Seven Year Old," The Windhover
"The Center Can Hold" Chariton Review
"Mystery & Magic of St. Peter" Ponder Review
“A Woman Desires an Origamist,” Ninth Letter
“A Woman Desires an Out of Practice Cellist,” Ninth Letter
“Conversations and Unbelief” & “Ode to Broken Men,” Minerva Rising
"Cycling Through South Jersey," The Mackinac
“How to Sort Tomatoes,” Ruminate Magazine
Finalist for the 2017 New South Poetry Prize, judge Mark Doty
Selected poet for Tupelo Press’ 30/30 Project during 2017 National Poetry Month
Finalist for the 2017 Fairy Tale Review Poetry Prize
Finalist for the 2017 Yemassee Journal Poetry Prize, judge Jericho Brown
“Via Negativa” Phoebe 45.2 : Finalist for the 2016 Greg Grummer Poetry Prize, judge Jericho Brown
“Of Women and Water” & “Years, I Waited” Ithaca Lit, Honorable Mention Difficult Fruit Poetry Prize
"A Letter" Phren-Z, Winner of Morton Marcus Poetry Prize, UC Santa Cruz reading with Al Young
Poetry as a Way of Life
“When language dies, out of carelessness, disuse, indifference and absence of esteem…all users and makers are accountable for its demise. We do language. That may be the measure of our lives."
-Toni Morrison
”Nobel Prize in Literature Speech,” 1993