Alexander Elinson teaches Arabic Language and Literature at Hunter College/CUNY and directs the Hunter College Summer Arabic Program. His research interests cut across the Middle East and North Africa, and include Arabic and Hebrew literature from the pre-Islamic to the modern period.
His current book project, entitled Looking Back: The Poetics of Loss and Nostalgia in Muslim Spain, ca. 1000-1500, examines the intersection between literary convention and poetic subjectivity in the literature of Muslim Spain. Current translation and research projects include an examination of prison writing in Morocco. He has published articles, reviews and translations on the Arabic and Hebrew strophic poem (muwashshah), rhymed prose narrative (maqama), and modern Arabic poetry and narrative in Medieval Encounters, Edebiyât, The Middle East Studies Association Bulletin, Paintbrush: A Journal of Poetry and Translation, The Journal of Arabic Literature, Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia, and The Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures. He currently lives in New York City
