JA Coming Up! Event and Appearance Lineup / Details coming soon!

Saints & Sinners Festival. March 28 – 30. New Orleans, LA. Event lineup TBA.

Forum for the Academy and the Public. March 7. University of California, Irvine. “A Conversation with Kim Stanley Robinson.” Jonathan Alexander in conversation with KSR.

CCCC. April 10. Baltimore, MD. “Collaboration (Intentional and Serendipitous) as Wayfinding and Remix” (with Karen Lunsford and Carl Whithaus)

American Studies Colloquium Series. April 24. University of Warsaw. Warsaw, Poland. “A Minima Moralia of Autotheory: New Reflections from Damaged Life.”

Planetary Futures Series. April 30. Indiana University. “A Queer DEI for the Anthropocene: Decadence, Enervation, Insomnia.”

The Visual Turn -- Why I Started Writing about -- and Making -- Art

My art practice — ranging from inks, watercolors, and acrylics to photography and collage — really only emerged during the pandemic, when I needed (and had the privileged opportunity) to occupy my time when not in a series of Zoom meetings.  I had always loved art, and I regularly read artists' biographies for pleasure, so I found myself buying a sketch pad and trying my own hand at art making.  I was hooked.  

I also found myself wanting to write more and more about art, and I was really drawn to artists such as David Wojnarowicz and Herve Guibert who were both artists and writers.  I produced some pieces on some of my other favorite artists (Catherine Opie, Nayland Blake, Darrel Ellis) for the Los Angeles Review of Books, and I now have a forthcoming book from Fordham UP on queer visual artists and writers, called DAMAGE: MEDITATIONS ON QUEER ART.  While I was working on that book, I was also continuing my art practice and even took a course on queer photography through the International Center for Photography.  The course and the practice of photography aided me in conceptualizing my work on other artists, especially queer photographers such as Opie, Mark Morrisroe, and Laura Aguilar.  

I post some of my own artwork on my Instagram account, and was delighted when a gallery, the XYZ Gallery of photography in Melbourne, announced a show on queer self portrait photography and invited me to participate.  I'm totally an amateur so feel very honored to have work shown alongside some professional artists!

As to the work itself, I have for a long time been fascinated by the self-representation of queer subjects.  Queer people have frequently come of age at times and in environments in which we are told by others who we are, including how sinful, sick, or "damaged" we are as queer people.  And yet, many queer folks have demonstrated creative resourcefulness in taking control of their own self-representation.  I try to explore some of this dynamic in my own critical work, in the monograph WRITING DESIRE, as well as in my own creative nonfiction, such as DEAR QUEER SELF: AN EXPERIMENT IN MEMOIR.  Being able to explore queer creative energy in visually rich work has been a true delight — and one that has inspired me to think more robustly about the connections between written and visual forms of self-expression.  

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.

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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.

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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/