SAINTS & SINNERS coming up!

I am absolutely THRILLED to be appearing on a few panels at SAINTS & SINNERS later this week! Check out this amazing showcase of LGBTQ writers! https://www.sasfest.org
And here are my panels:
Saturday, March 25, 2023

10—11:15—Reading Series

SAINTS AND SINNERS: WRITERS READ

Sponsored by the John Burton Harter Foundation

Take the rare opportunity to hear authors in their own voice. This highlighted Festival event has authors share their vivid imaginations with their new creations, or revisiting a past work that holds special meaning. Please join us in welcoming: Jonathan Alexander, Chris Belcher, Daniel M. Jaffe, Jameson Currier, Guy Mark Foster, Jess Wells, and Emanuel Xavier for this year’s mix of established and exciting new writers.

***

Sunday, March 26, 2023

10—11:15—Literary Discussion

COMING OF AGE IN TIME OF HIV & AIDS brings together a range of authors to reflect on the experience of growing up at the height of the AIDS epidemic, and how such experiences have shaped our creative practices. We also invite others, perhaps even younger folks who didn’t grow up at the time, to reflect on the felt legacies of the time as a crucial turning point — both in our personal lives, within queer community, and for the country as a whole. One important goal of the panel is to consider what needs to be written now — about the time of the epidemic, its many legacies, and our community’s ongoing grappling with living with HIV. This conversation will be facilitated by writer & podcaster Jonathan Alexander. Participants: Jobert E. Abueva, Gerard Cabrera, Wes Jamison, Mark S. King, and Daniel W.K. Lee. So bring yourself, your ideas, and your creativity!

Sponsored by the Bruce J. Heim Foundation.

***

Sunday, March 26, 2023

1—2:15 PM—Literary Discussion

HOW TO WRITE A MEMOIR AND KEEP YOUR SANITY OR THE CHALLENGES OF WRITING MEMOIR

There are few genres more compelling then the memoir: the true stories of our challenging journeys and our culture. Our panelists will consider three aspects of writing the memoir: the emotional demands, tradecraft, and legal issues raised by this truth telling.

Panelists include: Jonathan Alexander, Felice Cohen, Joel Lafayette Fletcher III, Patricia Grayhall, and Lori Horvitz.

Moderator: Jess Wells.

MORE UPCOMING EVENTS!!!

Next week I’m on a mini-book tour, with a stop in New Orleans and then New York! Join me in NOLA at Frenchman’s Art & Books on Tuesday, June 14 for a reading and signing at 6:30pm. For more info, see: https://frenchmenartandbooks.com

Then I’ll be in NYC at The Bureau of General Services, Queer Division for a reading and signing with the amazing PAMELA SNEED! Thursday, June 16 at 7pm. For more info, see: https://bgsqd.com/event/writing-our-own-queer-histories-jonathan-alexander-pamela-sneed/

STROKE BOOK is OUT!!!

SO excited to have Stroke Book: The Diary of a Blindspot finally out in the world. Available everywhere, but please order from Fordham UP to support the press: https://www.fordhampress.com/9780823297665/stroke-book/.

Reviews:

Jonathan Alexander's Stroke Book is a fascinating auto-theoretical essay on illness and queer sexuality through the prism of his own health crisis that occurred after he had a minor stroke, causing visual impairment and anxiety about his own mortality. Alexander''s aphoristic style combines bits and pieces of phenomenological reflection with social and cultural analysis, creating a kaleidoscopic portal into the experience of stroke and its aftermath.---Lisa Diedrich, author of Indirect Action: Schizophrenia, Epilepsy, AIDS and the Course of Health Activism

Jonathan Alexander has given us an unexpected gift: an intimate performance of phenomenological writing that refuses the drive to process and package a life-altering experience of illness, embracing instead the daily imbrication of undependable vision, uncertain prognosis, and robust, resilient desire. Like the survival of its author in the wake of a sudden stroke, this book is a minor miracle.---Patrick Anderson, author of Autobiography of a Disease, and So Much Wasted