Doug Lang, brilliant poet, mentor and beloved friend to many, died on November 22, 2022, at an assisted living residence in Silver Spring, Maryland, where he had lived for the last few years.

Born in Swansea, Wales, and a resident of Washington, D.C. since 1973, Doug never lost his endearing Welsh accent or old-world charm, graciousness, and kindness. He was the glue that held together a closely knit community of writers in D.C. and connected them with the larger writing community. As the organizer of the renowned reading series at Folio Books from 1976 to 1978, he brought together nationally and internationally esteemed writers from D.C. and beyond, including Bruce Andrews, Charles Bernstein, Ted Berrigan, Tina Darragh, Lyn Hejinian, Susan Howe, Peter Inman, Alice Notley, Tom Raworth, Leslie Scalapino, Ron Silliman, Diane Ward, and Terence Winch, among many others.

He created a community, as well, at the Corcoran College of Art + Design, where he taught from 1976 to 2013. Devoted to his students, as to his friends and colleagues, he celebrated their creative potential and made writing, their writing, seem important.

Some may know of Doug’s writing through informal channels, such as personal correspondence, gifts and readings—including his reading at The Poetry Project with Ron Silliman on November 2, 2011. Doug was notoriously and frustratingly reticent about publishing his own work but among his admittedly rare and hard-to-find publications are: Hot Shot (Jawbone, 1977), Magic Fire Chevrolet (Titanic, 1988), dérangé (Primary Writing, 2013) and Epistrophy (dry imager, 2020). In the Works, the first in a series of several planned anthologies of his work, has just been published by Edge Books. A selection of his readings, and an interview by Terence Winch are available at Penn Sound. His papers are housed at Burns Library, Boston College.