Alexander Chee

I have news: I sold a novel. It’s a little different for me. What’s it about? It’s a campus novel, kind of. Very much not about Dartmouth. I’ve been saying Dark Academia but no one dies, and with sex. Maybe you can guess from the title. I began writing it to crack myself up during a difficult time, thinking “Well clearly I will never show this to anyone” and here we are. Thank you to Kate Nintzel at @marinerbooks and @davidjohnross at @penguincanada , and my agent Jin Auh at Wylie for making my dreams of chaotic queer Asian Americans in academia come true. And thank you to @givesgoodfeedback for being my loving husband editor. I can’t wait for me to finish it so I can find out how it ends and then I’ll put it in the world for all of you. And yes that’s me on the left of Tiffany Haddish, just in case that wasn’t clear (she sold a book too).

Another episode of books in the mail: In Trees, by Robert Moor; As If We Were Staying, by Spencer R. Scott (Nov); Death Of An Ordinary Man, by our beloved @sarah_grace_perry , her American edition (Oct); Lives Of The Saints, by Nancy Lemann.

Don’t quit being human yet. 1. Gillian Tett for the Financial Times, 2. Toni Cade Bambara

Some more book recs for Independent Bookstores Day vertical photo edition (horizontal photos in the last one). Yes I’m doing these more because books coverage was cut recently despite or maybe even because reading is up and the number of indie booksellers grew. Yes, I’m paranoid and I’m right about it. Anyway! Shop indie, here’s some recommendations and some of them might need to be preordered.

I’m grading and finishing a revision of my new novel and it’s also independent bookstore day. So maybe you’ve opened your phone and are wondering what to buy? And you see this. Here’s a list of suggestions from me, hopefully in time for you to make your way to your local indie. Including a new edition of Edmund White’s The Flaneur, with an introduction by me. Support your local independent booksellers! It’s going great, by the way, many new stores have opened. More people are reading according to Pew research despite doomer op eds. Buy a book and have fun? Close that phone too after the purchase… and yes my tbr laughs at me every day.

Happy birthday, @givesgoodfeedback ! I love you so much. Captain of my Zombie Survival Squad, in-house editor, zinger wizard. I was lonely in a way I never knew before I met you, and live a life I never imagined possible. So grateful for you every day. Thank you to fellow celebrants @mrchriswells , @heybuddyvalentine , @chrisjbick , @robertlucyartist for the gay old time.

Stopped by my old neighborhood bookstore, @sandmeyers_books (which sold The Viral Underclass during @printersrowfest ) and they’ve done a lovely renovation—it’s always been well curated but it’s even more light and welcoming now. I am also genuinely shocked to walk around bookstore now and see so many friends and colleagues on the contemporary nonfiction shelves…as @cheemobile taught me, try to imagine where your book will go the shelf someday (ideally, amongst friends).

I guess you can say it’s canon now. Unironically? This October @marinerbooks will publish a 25th anniversary edition of my debut novel Edinburgh in their Mariner Classics line, with this new cover, an introduction by @ggreenwell that made me cry and a quote from @brandonlgtaylor that made me blush. Grateful to them all and to all of the readers who have embraced the novel and kept it alive. Thank you all.

Happy to announce a new four-week class for @offassignment starting this June ! we'll delve deep into hybrid memoir as a form and talk with some brilliant practitioners. link in bio! ✨😘 Alexander Chee (@cheemobile ) has been sighted in an OA Zoom room before! You may know him from his guest appearance during last fall’s “Writing Autofiction,” or from the pages of his iconic “How to Write an Autobiographical Novel,” which charts his identity from essay to essay, meandering in memory and experience, but never in wisdom.⁠ Nina Renata Aron (@ninarenataaron ) is distinguished not only by her prose’s lyricism, but by her brilliant memoir “Good Morning, Destroyer of Men’s Souls.” Her approach to memoir is suited perfectly for this course; in detailing the intricacies of her love affair with an addict, she also charts a social and cultural history. We can’t wait to ask her all about it!⁠ ⁠ To say that Megan Stielstra (@meganstielstra ) is a friend of OA is an understatement. She’s been head teacher for two courses—and we can personally attest to her effortless command of a Zoom room. Her essays manage to touch universal themes of mortality, fear, and rage through precise anecdote and unerring humor. We can’t wait to see her again (and again). ⁠ ⁠ To round off the course, we’ll be joined by Melissa Febos (@melissafebos )! Melissa is a returning guest author in our Off Assignment world, and an early contributor of ours. Give her Letter to a Stranger “To That Baby in Vico” a read—and pick up her memoir, “The Dry Season,” in the meantime. The latter is a prime example of why she’s joining us: her ability to situate memoir within lineage, to bring her story into conversation with others’, is astonishing. ⁠ ⁠ Don’t miss out on this stellar lineup! Seats and scholarships for “Writing Hybrid Memoir” are going fast. We’ll be there—will you?

Sandy Allen and @mariskreizman recruited me as one of their reviewers for this @literaryhub project: reviewing queer and trans books that were likely passed over by the transphobia of NYTBR’s Pamela Paul. I chose Beating Heart Baby by @emo__ocean , about the most incredible marching band in an LA high school and the story of their two very special queer and trans trumpet players who fell in love. Set up like an album might be, each side telling a story from one player, and full of anime and manga references, indie music lore and much much more, it was a wild ride. Link in bio, due to Meta link suppression policies.

If you’re at #AWP2026, I am reading tonight at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop event with @carmenmmachado , Paul Harding, @sarahceniaminor , @laurenhaldeman and @rodney.dailey.ii . Tomorrow I’ll be honoring Edmund White alongside @rakeshsatyal , @mizabbott , @brian.alessandro and @aldenjoneswriter . I’ll read from my novel in progress tonight and from a new introduction I wrote to Edmund White’s The Flaneur tomorrow. I hope to see you there.

In the mailbox today, it was like a coincidental surprise Seollal party: @lee_minjin ’s long awaited masterpiece, tangerine tea from Jeju from @jiminhanwriter , and some elite skin care from @terpsicoreans (and some candied nuts that are apparently the hot new snack) arriving today of all days together. I feel very loved, friends, thank you—Happy New Year! The most auspicious omen really.