Alex Leavens, born July 30, 1975, was raised in Portland, Oregon, a fourth-generation Oregonian. He attended Prescott [Arizona] College, where he lived in a wickiup he designed and built. He also attended the Boulder [Colorado] Outdoor Survival School, and started two businesses, Old Federal Ax Company and the Oregon School of Survival and Tracking. He taught skills ranging from making primitive pottery to animal track identification. He also served as a firefighter in Arizona, southern California, and the Olympic National Park. Alex earned a Bachelors degree in English Literature at Portland State University, and published poems, infused with his unique perspective on nature, art, and craftsmanship, in numerous literary magazines. Sadly, as his career as a poet began to flourish, Alex Leavens died by his own hand August 13, 2021. The poems he left behind are gathered here.
