Born in Inverness, Cape Breton and raised in Windsor, Ont., Alexander MacLeod is a short story writer and academic. He is an English and Atlantic Canada studies professor at Saint Mary's University in Halifax. He holds degrees from the University of Windsor, the University of Notre Dame and McGill University.

MacLeod's debut short story collection Light Lifting was shortlisted for the 2010 Scotiabank Giller Prize, the 2011 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and the Commonwealth Prize. It won the Atlantic Book Award.