Alise Alousi is an Iraqi American poet[1] living in Detroit and is also director of Alternatives for Girls, a local program to keep young women from dropping out of school.[2] She was born in 1965. Her mother is from Detroit, Michigan and her father is from Baghdad, Iraq. She attended school at Wayne State University and studied creative writing and literature.[3] Born to an Iraqi father, Alousi still has relatives in Iraq.[4]