Youssef Alaoui, an Arab-Latino born in California, draws inspiration from his diverse heritage, including his Colombian mother and Moroccan father, which influences his varied, dark, spiritual, and carnal writings. He holds an MFA in Poetics from New College of California, where he studied Classical Arabic, Spanish Baroque, and Contemporary Moroccan poetry, and founded the college's Special Collections Department. In 2012, he launched the East Bay literary arts festival Beast Crawl, established Paper Press Books & Associates Publishing Company, which publishes significant poetry books and a poetry and art anthology, and in 2013, served as Associate Editor of Big Bridge Press and Magazine. His work has appeared in publications such as Exquisite Corpse, 580 Split, Cherry Bleeds, Virgogray Press, Red Fez, Big Bridge, Dusie Press, Paris Lit Up, and The Opiate. Well-versed in the morbid and dark literature of the 19th century, Alaoui was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2015 through Full of Crow, a literary online journal.