Doug Lang was born as William Douglas Allen in Swansea, Wales on April 11, 1941 to parents William I. and Anne (Lang) Allen. Lang and his sister Synde (alternatively known as Sindy and Daphne) adopted their mother's maiden name when their father left early in their childhood. Before moving to the United States, Lang attended Coleg Harlech, an alternative residential college in Wales, and married fellow poet Andrea Wyatt in London in 1972.
Lang settled in Washington, DC in 1973 and ran an influential poetry reading series at Folio Books in Dupont Circle from January 1976 to June 1978. This series stemmed from the Mass Transit poetry movement, which met at the Community Book Shop in Washington, DC in the early 1970s. Notable poets who participated in the readings included Tina Darragh, Peter Inman, Michael Lally, Diane Ward, and Terence Winch. In 1983, Lang helped found ACE Exhibits (Active Culture Exhibits, formerly known as United Artists), a production company made up of sixteen artists to promote the expansion of art and art exhibits in Washington, DC.
In 1976, Doug Lang joined the Corcoran School of Art (renamed the Corcoran School of the Arts & Design in 1999) as a writing teacher. During his 37 year career there, Lang served as a faculty association president, department chair, and interim dean. In the 1980s, Lang taught summer writing workshops at Bard College and founded a small press called Jawbone. His published poetry works include Magic Fire Chevrolet (1982), 3 Novels (1988), Horror Vacui (1991), imbecile periplum (2007), dérangé (2013), and In the Works (published posthumously in 2023). He also published two novels, Freaks (1973) and The Sex Clinic (1973), the latter under the name J.J. Lyly, and contributed to poetry magazines Dog City, which he founded, and EEL (Everybody's Ex-Lover). Doug Lang died on November 22, 2022 in Silver Spring, Maryland.
