Jonathan Alexander is Chancellor’s Professor of English at UC Irvine, where he is director of the Center for Excellence in Writing and Communication. He is the author, co-author, or editor of 13 books, including Writing Youth: Young Adult Fiction as Literacy Sponsorship (2016) and the critical memoir, Creep: A Life, a Theory, an Apology (2017).
CONTRIBUTOR ARTICLES
Pedagogic, Not Didactic: Michael Cart on Young Adult Fiction
On the growing sophistication of YA fiction and its audience....
Feeling the Fear of Difference: Celebrating “A Wrinkle in Time”
A symposium on Madeleine L’Engle’s classic YA fantasy....
John Green’s Anxieties: On “Turtles All the Way Down”
Jonathan Alexander on John Green's new novel....
Other People’s Children, Part 3, or Ghost Touches: Myriam Gurba’s “Mean” and Sexual Violence
Jonathan Alexander on the hauntology of sexual violence in Myriam Gurba’s difficult but impactful new memoir/true crime tale, “Mean.”...
Other People’s Children, Part 2: Stories in the Aftermath, or “The Hate U Give”
Angie Thomas’s debut novel tackles the traumas of race in contemporary America....
Other People’s Children: “Younger,” “Cucumber,” and an Open Love Letter to Nico Tortorella
Jonathan Alexander on the frisson and fantasy of love and sex across the generational divide in the TV shows “Younger” and “Cucumber.”...
Strange Bedfellows: Queers, Conservatives, Catholics
Jonathan Alexander ponders homophobia in Islam and Christianity....
Damaging Words: On “Thirteen Reasons Why”
Jonathan Alexander reviews the new Netflix series “Thirteen Reasons Why.”...
Everyone Grows Up: Jonathan Alexander and Brian Selznick in Conversation
Jonathan Alexander interview children’s author Brian Selznick....
What Feeds the Imagination: Jonathan Alexander Interviews Kenneth Kidd
Jonathan Alexander interviews scholar of YA literature, Kenneth Kidd....
On Alter Egos and Facing Monsters: Jonathan Alexander Interviews Francesca Lia Block
An interview with author Francesca Lia Block....
The Case for Animal Welfare in YA
GIVEN ITS PENCHANT for exploring hot topics, young adult fiction is no stranger to environmental issues. YA dystopias are often set ...
Aftermaths of an Epidemic: On Dale Peck’s “Visions and Revisions”
Peck’s larger claim is that despite AIDS, and maybe even because of AIDS, gay men must make sure not to lose joy in sex....
Failures of Nerve: “While We’re Young” and “The Overnight”
Marriage isn't just for two people anymore: on "While We're Young" and "The Overnight."...
Unnatural Disasters, or Queering Katrina
Photography by Jon Hughes / Photopresse...
Late L’Engle: The Wrinkles of Time, Redeemed
Madeleine L'Engle is pegged as a writer for young people, but that isn't all....
The Literacy Games: Summer Lessons About Media from YA Fiction
Dystopic stories are attractive. They appeal to a readership that feels threatened — economically in an age of downward mobility, and politically in an age of terror....
Kids in the Aftermath: Katrina in Young Adult Fiction
Children's and young adult fiction about Hurricane Katrina helps shape cultural understanding of social justice....
The Career of David Levithan: It Gets Better and Better
David Levithan’s Two Boys Kissing honors not only the struggles of gay youth, but those whose sacrifices have made contemporary queer visibility possible....
PART FOUR of Imagining Alien Sex: Preparing for the Alien
"What might serve as a guide as we potentially embrace the posthuman? What might assist us in thinking through the consequences of such posthumanity? Science fiction certainly assists us in imagining possible futures."...
PART THREE of Imagining Alien Sex: Alien Sex Goes Mainstream: "Star Trek"
THE STAR TREK franchise can be credited with several important sexual and racial firsts — such as providing television’s first interracial ...
PART TWO of Imagining Alien Sex: Feminist Interventions
"Are we questioning the naturalness of our own sexual and gender paradigms?" ...
PART ONE of Imagining Alien Sex: From Ming the Merciless to "The Lovers"
"In this four-part series, we look at different depictions in SF of sex between humans and aliens, beginning with some early encounters in pulp and 'classic' science fiction, in which the exotic 'Other' entices — sometimes pleasurably, sometimes perilously."...
CALIFORNIA in/and SCIENCE FICTION
SF in CA: Rob Latham, Catherine Liu, Jonathan Alexander, Gregory Benford and others dicuss the history and future of science fiction in California....
California in Science Fiction: The Future is Here
California is SF's natural home....
Revolution Now? The Family Romances of Post-Apocalyptic Media
2012 was a great year for the post-apocalypse....
Katrina Media: The Arts of HBO’s “Treme” in the Aftermath of Trauma
Homepage: Tremé Second Line on North Derbigny 1958 © Ralston Crawford, Ralston Crawford Collection, Hogan Jazz Archive, Tulane University TELLING THE STORY ...
BLARB BLOG POSTS
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Fantasy Lands: Black Panther and Call Me By Your Name
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Blinded by Donald Trump, or, Slowing Down
