Alexander Chee
Alexander Chee was born on 21 August 1967. Recorded with the gender male. Alexander Chee was recorded as having studied at Wesleyan University and Iowa Writers' Workshop.
Alexander Chee

Larry D. Moore · CC BY 4.0
- Name
- Alexander Chee
- Born
- 21 August 1967
- Birthplace
- South Kingston, Rhode Island, United States
- Occupation
- Writer
- Education
- Wesleyan University (BA) Iowa Writers' Workshop, University of Iowa (MFA)
- Awards
- Whiting Award (2003) Guggenheim Fellow (2021) Alexander Chee (born August 21, 1967) is an American fiction writer, poet, journalist and reviewer.
- Nationality
- United States
- Fields
- creative and professional writing · poetry · prose · English-language literature
- Known for
- Edinburgh
- Honours
- Whiting Awards · PEN/Open Book · Asian American Literary Awards · Guggenheim Fellowship
- Languages
- English
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Alexander Chee was born on 21 August 1967. Recorded with the gender male. Alexander Chee was recorded as having studied at Wesleyan University and Iowa Writers' Workshop.
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Authority files
wikidata · Q4718581 · wikipedia · Alexander Chee
In this article
Biography
Biography
Recorded with the occupation poet. Recorded with the occupation journalist. Recorded with the occupation writer. Recorded with the occupation university teacher. Recorded with the occupation literary critic. Recorded with the occupation scholar of English.
Alexander Chee studied at Wesleyan University and Iowa Writers' Workshop. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is creative and professional writing, poetry and prose. Employment is recorded with Dartmouth College. Works named in the authority record are Edinburgh.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Alexander Chee • Born — 21 August 1967 • Birthplace — South Kingston, Rhode Island, United States • Occupation — Writer • Education — Wesleyan University (BA) Iowa Writers' Workshop, University of Iowa (MFA) • Notable Works — Edinburgh The Queen of the Night How to Write an Autobiographical Novel • Website — https: www.alexanderchee.net/ • Awards — Whiting Award (2003) Guggenheim Fellow (2021) Alexander Chee (born August 21, 1967) is an American fiction writer, poet, journalist and reviewer. His critically acclaimed debut novel, Edinburgh, was awarded the Asian American Writers Workshop Literary Award, the Lambda Editor's Choice Prize, and the Michener/Copernicus Fellowship Prize. In 2003, Out named Chee one of their 100 Most Influential People of the year.
Early life and education
Early life and education
Born in Rhode Island, he spent his childhood in South Korea, Kauai, Truk, Guam and Maine. He attended Wesleyan University and the Iowa Writers' Workshop.
Career
Career
Chee's short fiction appeared in the anthologies Best American Erotica 2007, A Fictional History of the US (With Huge Chunks Missing), Men on Men 2000, His 3, and his personal essays in Out, From Boys To Men, Loss Within Loss, Boys Like Us, The M Word, and The Man I Might Become. His essay "I, Reader" was selected for inclusion in the Notable Essays list of the 2011 edition of the Best American Essays, and his essay "Girl," was included in Best American Essays 2016. His short stories and essays have also appeared in magazines and journals such as The New York Times Book Review, Tin House, Slate, Guernica, NPR. Chee's poetry has appeared in Barrow Street, LIT, Interview, the James White Review, and XXX Fruit. He has written journalism and reviews for The New York Times, Time Out New York, Out/Look, OutWeek, The Advocate, Out, Bookforum and the San Francisco Review of Books. He was also the recipient of the 2003 Whiting Award, a 2004 NEA Fellowship, and a 2010 Massachusetts Cultural Council of the Arts Fellowship, as well as residency fellowships at the MacDowell Colony, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Civitella Ranieri, and Leidig House. He was a judge for the PEN Open Book Award in 2012 and currently serves on the board of directors of the Authors' Guild of America. He was the recipient of the 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship in Fiction. Chee was the associate fiction editor of literary magazine The Nervous Breakdown, and is currently a contributing editor at The New Republic, an editor-at-large at VQR and The Lit Hub, and a critic-at-large for Los Angeles Times. He has taught fiction writing at The New School, Wesleyan, Iowa Writers' Workshop, Columbia University, the University of Texas at Austin, and Princeton University, and has served as a Visiting Writer at Amherst College. In the winter semester 2012/2013 he was Picador Professor for Literature at the University of Leipzig. Chee is currently full professor of creative nonfiction and fiction writing at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. He wrote an episode of the upcoming Netflix limited series East of Eden, based on the novel of the same name by John Steinbeck.
Novels
Novels
* *
Nonfiction
Nonfiction
*
Anthology appearances
Anthology appearances
* * * * * * *
Essays and stories
Essays and stories
* * * * *
Podcast appearances
Podcast appearances
• LGBTQ&A, "Alexander Chee: On Becoming An American Writer," April 23, 2018
Television
Television
• East of Eden (2026; wrote 1 episode)
Identity
Identity
Alexander Chee is recorded with the occupation university teacher. Recorded with the occupation literary critic. Recorded as having received Whiting Awards, PEN/Open Book and Asian American Literary Awards.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
1967
Alexander Chee was born on 21 August 1967.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Alexander Chee was born in Rhode Island.
Birthplace
Rhode Island.
Birth place
Film appearances
• Interview in Sex Is... (1993), Directed by Marc Huestis, as himself
Primary material
Documents and archives
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q4718581: Alexander Chee
General reference · Wikidata
reference work
- “Alexander Chee”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
References
Citations
References
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authority record
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
Further particulars
Held on the record
Further particulars
Open the remaining particulars
Alexander Chee worked in creative and professional writing, poetry, prose, English-language literature and American literature. He was employed by Dartmouth College. Chee received Whiting Awards, PEN/Open Book, Asian American Literary Awards and Guggenheim Fellowship.
Career and activity
Recognition and collections
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 18 August 2026.
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