Douglas Spangle was born in Roanoak, Virginia, finished high school in Turkey, and spent years as a stagehand for the Münchner Kammerspiele Schauspielhaus. Now a long-time resident of Portland, Oregon, he has emceed hundreds of poetry readings throughout the city and co-organized city-wide events such as Artquake. He is spending his pandemic time translating the Swiss-German poems of Clemens Umbricht and Florian Vetsch. For a number of years he has also acted as copy-editor for Portland's weekly homeless community newspaper, Street Roots.