Episode 281 with Alexander Chee, Author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel, Wonderful Literary Citizen and Activist, and Reflective, Brilliant Thinker and Craftsman of the Nuanced and Poignant

Notes and Links to Alexander Chee’s Work

 

 

 

   Alexander Chee is the bestselling author of the novels Edinburgh and The Queen of the Night, and the essay collection How To Write An Autobiographical Novel, all from Mariner Books. A contributing editor at The New Republic and an editor at large at VQR, his essays and stories have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, T Magazine, The Sewanee Review, and the 2016 and 2019 Best American Essays. He was guest-editor for The Best American Essays of 2022.

   He is a 2021 United States Artists Fellow, a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow in Nonfiction, and the recipient of a Whiting Award, a NEA Fellowship, an MCCA Fellowship, the Randy Shilts Prize in gay nonfiction, the Paul Engle Prize, the Lambda Editor’s Choice Prize, and residency fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the VCCA, Leidig House, Civitella Ranieri and Amtrak.

   He is a full professor of English and Creative Writing at Dartmouth College and lives in Vermont.

Buy How To Write an Autobiographical Novel

 

Alexander's Website

 

Book Review for How To Write an Autobiographical Novel from The New York Times

 

At about 2:00, Alexander details his Amtrak residency, later written about in The New Yorker

At about 6:00, Alexander outlines some interesting characters that he met during his Amtrak residency 

At about 12:00, Alexander reflects on a book project inspired by an interesting encounter with a former detective and British and American sensibilities 

At about 16:30, Pete shares his own Amtrak story, possible fodder for essays and short stories, as Alexander remarks on “immediate friendship” 

At about 18:50, Alexander talks about upcoming novel and short story projects and the process of picking a title; he recounts how he arrived at his essay collection’s title, through a Buzzfeed publication 

At about 26:30, Alexander highlights Kirkus Review naming How to Write an Autobiographical Novel one 

At about 27:35, Alexander gives background on his essay collection’s cover photo

At about 34:10, Alexander talks about the composition of the previous essay collection and his upcoming one, with regards to placement and focuses on his “rose garden”-
“The Rosary”-essay’s development

At about 39:00, Alexander responds to Pete’s questions about the order of the essays in the collections and any throughlines-Garnette Cadogan and Naomi Gibbs are shouted out

At about 43:40, Alexander talks about a manuscript that he has been working

At about 44:45, Pete is complimentary of Alexander’s “The Rosary” essay, and Alexander tells a story of an interested and poignant conversation with  

At about 48:00, Pete shouts 

At about 49:00, Pete and Alexander talk about the essay collection’s first piece, and Alexander talks about being “Alejandro from Oaxaca” for a short time-he references Yiyun Li’s powerful essay, “To Speak is to Blunder”

At about 55:10, Pete compliments Alexander’s powerful advocacy work and asks him about perspective and time, and how Alexander looks back at the essays from the collection so many years later (for some of the essays)

At about 1:02:00, In talking about modern protest and activist culture, mutual aid, etc., Alexander shouts out Sarah Thankam Mathews’ powerful All This Could Be Different

At about 1:04:30, Alexander discusses a dynamic class that he has mentored at Dartmouth

At about 1:05:30, Alexander responds to Pete’s questions about what fiction allows him to do with his writing

At about 1:06:30, Alexander reflects on ideas of catharsis in his writing

 

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    Please tune in for Episode 282 with Emely Rumble, a licensed clinical social worker, school social worker, and seasoned biblio/psychotherapist who specializes in bibliotherapy, the use of literature and expressive writing to heal. Pub Day and episode air day are April 29 for her wonderful book, Bibliotherapy in The Bronx.