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Alexander Sammartino — with a flip phone and his professor’s typewritten notes in hand — first entered English Professor Dana Spiotta’s office hours for a writers workshop in September 2012. Then-Syracuse University sophomore Sammartino was intimidated by an established author reading his fiction for the first time. Spiotta said she noticed his ambition right away.

“She was just like, ‘You know, I really think you could be good at this,’” Sammartino recalled. “She saw something in me, and I feel like I had never been encouraged like that before. I think it’s a defining moment in my life.”

Taking Spiotta’s advice, Sammartino began writing daily, which he now does full-time. Now 34-year-old Sammartino owns a smartphone and published his debut novel, “Last Acts,” in 2023. His second book, “Gallo,” is set to be released in early 2027.

Sammartino wrote the first iteration of “Gallo” in 2016, while in graduate school at SU and turned it in to author Jenny Offill, who encouraged him to keep writing about bodybuilding, Sammartino said. He spent over two years working on Gallo before he switched solely to “Last Acts.” After he finished the latter, he started “Gallo” over, writing for another three years.

But Sammartino didn’t always believe he’d be a writer.

Born in Rhode Island and raised in Arizona, Sammartino was encouraged to play sports from a young age. He played fullback at Eastern Arizona College in the fall of 2010, before transferring to Glendale Community College the following spring.

Though Sammartino continued playing football, Glendale is where his passion for literature blossomed, starting after he read William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” he said.

In the more than 12 years that Kelley Rowland’s known Alexander Sammartino, she can’t remember a day when he hasn’t written — and their wedding day isn’t an exception. Sammartino’s early-morning writing routine began at Syracuse University, where he attended for undergraduate school and the Creative Writing MFA Program. Courtesy of Alexander Sammartino

“Books gave me access to this emotional language and my own sense of myself. So many sports are about erasing your identity to be a part of the team, and I feel like with books you’re embracing who you are,” Sammartino said. “I didn’t feel like I knew a lot about myself because I’d always been just another guy on the team.”

Sammartino wanted to transfer to an East Coast school because of his family in Rhode Island. When drafting a college list, Sammartino said he saw SU as a reach and didn’t think he’d get in. In reality, it was the only place that admitted him. He enrolled at SU in spring 2012. In 2015, Sammartino graduated from SU with a double major in English and textual studies and philosophy.

But Sammartino’s relationship with writing wasn’t always seamless. When he applied to SU’s Creative Writing MFA Program, he was waitlisted.

Spiotta called Sammartino afterward, and she remembers him saying he wouldn’t give up — and she believed him. Soon, he got off the waitlist and graduated from the program in 2018 on the fiction track.

“(He) continued to work really hard, and a lot of it had to do with Alex more than any teachers he had, no matter what he says, because he was just so devoted,” Spiotta said.

As a student in SU’s Creative Writing MFA Program, Sammartino was taught by award-winning author Mary Karr. During the ongoing writing process of “Gallo,” Karr told him: “If you were a corporation, I’d buy stock in you.”

Sammartino didn’t go unnoticed when “Last Acts” was released. He won the 2025 Young Lions Fiction Award, earned a spot on the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 list and was hired to write a screenplay adapted from the book.

In the more than 12 years they’ve been together, his now-wife Kelley Rowland doesn’t remember a day Sammartino hasn’t written — even on their wedding day, she said.

Rowland met Sammartino toward the end of their sophomore year when one of her friends brought Sammartino over to her South Campus apartment. Rowland came downstairs and saw Sammartino was looking at her book collection. Rowland called their first encounter a “love-at-first-sight moment.”

After receiving his master’s degree, Sammartino wrote “Last Acts” primarily in the morning before his 9-to-5 tech sales job at Zocdoc and Gappify. Sammartino said he wrote each day from 5 to 7:30 a.m. — a writing pattern that began in graduate school, which was a stark contrast to his late-night undergraduate writing sessions.

“It’s unlike anybody else I know, the ambition and the drive to be able to get up so early, do the thing you love and go do your job, too,” Rowland said. “He’s always been incredibly focused and determined. It’s just incredible. I literally don’t know anybody else who has the work ethic that he does.”

Sammartino credits his athletic career — a period in his life outside of the “writerly experience” — for teaching him how to persevere amid challenges, including writer’s block.

“Writers who have some kind of literary success, it’s not so much talent, which certainly Alex has, but how committed they are to learning what they need to learn and how they won’t give up no matter what,” Spiotta said.

In July, Alexander Sammartino earned the 2025 Young Lions Fiction Award for his novel, “Last Acts.” The award was given to Sammartino at the New York Public Library, with attendees like Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Penn Badgley. Courtesy of Alexander Sammartino

His new book, “Gallo,” follows a bodybuilder, his life after competitions and the consequences of his training. The book is loosely based on Sammartino’s cousin and bodybuilder, Anthony D’Arezzo.

Sammartino said his uncle hung a photo of D’Arezzo in full “bodybuilding mode” on his wall next to family photos and told an 8-year-old Sammartino to never forget his cousin. The way his uncle talked about D’Arezzo like a mythic figure stuck with Sammartino, inspiring “Gallo,” he said.

“I wanted to pursue this myth of individualism with your own life and pushing yourself beyond your own means,” Sammartino said. “And these are really kind of American ideals that are very tragic but also beautiful.”

Aside from his writing, Spiotta and Rowland praised Sammartino’s character, calling him warm, empathetic and altruistic. Karr said he’s a big-hearted person, especially for a former bouncer. Karr added Sammartino does a lot of charity work, and Rowland said he volunteers in their neighborhood.

Once, Sammartino even stayed with Karr in the emergency room while she was waiting for test results. Karr said some people may visit you for a minute and bring you a Coca-Cola, but Sammartino stayed with her for eight hours.

“You knew you were dealing with an exceptional mind, but also an exceptional heart,” Karr said.

Sammartino returned to SU on Feb. 11 as part of the Raymond Carver Reading Series. In Watson Theater, he read excerpts from both “Last Acts” and “Gallo.”

In graduate school, Sammartino taught a section of “Living Writers,” a course where students attend these readings. And as an undergraduate, he attended the readings “all the time.”

He always thought it’d be crazy to come back to the series as an author — but he never thought it would actually happen.

“One of the things that I loved about being at Syracuse was being part of this insane literary history. So many writers have come through there and been part of the Carver Reading Series,” Sammartino said. “And now it’s like, ‘Cool, man, you joined that history. You’re a part of that now, too.’”

Published on March 5, 2026 at 12:17 am
Contact Joel: jdpelach@syr.edu