Alexander Elessar Yates[1] (born June 1, 1982, in Port au Prince, Haiti) is an American short story writer, and novelist.
The son of an American diplomat, Yates grew up in the Caribbean and South America, graduating high school in the Philippines.
[3] After graduating, Yates took a job at the American Embassy in the Philippines, and has since served with the US Agency for International Development in Rwanda and Afghanistan.
[10] Prior to graduating from the MFA program at Syracuse University, Yates won the Joyce Carol Oates award in both fiction and poetry.
[12] His second novel, The Winter Place, was a selection of the Junior Library Guild[13] and the Kansas State Reading Circle.