Youssef Alaoui has spent most of his professional life in library stacks and at the computer referencing worn out facts and citations, researching antiquated wisdom or cutting edge sciences. For a few years, he served as a contracted international investigator. His home cities are Morro Bay, Tempe, Paris, Lille, Seattle, and Oakland. Youssef is a Moroccan American Latino. His family and heritage are an endless source of inspiration for his varied, dark, spiritual and carnal writings. He earned an MFA in Poetics from New College of California, Mission District, San Francisco. There, he studied classical Arabic poetry, Spanish baroque poetry and Moroccan contemporary poetry. He is also well versed in 19th Century literature of the fantastic. His writings have appeared in Exquisite Corpse, Big Bridge, Cherry Bleeds, 580 Split, Full of Crow, Carcinogenic Poetry, Dusie Press, Tsunami Books, Red Fez, and Rivet Journal.