Ali Alizadeh was born in Tehran in 1976 and migrated to Australia in 1991. He graduated with Honours in Creative Arts from Griffith University, Gold Coast and holds a PhD in Professional Writing from Deakin University, Melbourne. He has taught at universities in Australia, China, Turkey and United Arab Emirates, and has also worked as street performer, hair-wrapper, and delivery driver. He is a writer of poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, drama and literary criticism. He is a lecturer in Literature and Creative Writing at Monash University, Melbourne.