A short life of the author
Alexander Chee (b. 1967) was born in Rhode Island to a Korean-American family. He studied at Wesleyan University, where he was a student of Annie Dillard. He has taught at numerous universities, including Dartmouth College.
Life and Career
Edinburgh (2001) — about a twelve-year-old Korean-American boy soprano in Maine who is sexually abused by his choir director — is his debut and most important work. The novel is structurally ambitious, moving between past and present, and its prose is lyrical without sentimentality. It is one of the most powerful American novels about childhood sexual abuse.
The Queen of the Night (2016) — a historical novel about a soprano at the Paris Opera in the 1860s, involving espionage, politics, and artistic ambition — is a very different book: lavish, operatic, and plotted with the complexity of a nineteenth-century serial novel.
How to Write an Autobiographical Novel (2018) — a collection of essays about writing, identity, AIDS activism, race, and the creative life — became one of the most widely read essay collections of its year.
Major Works and Themes
Chee writes about identity, art, trauma, queerness, and what it means to be Korean-American. His work spans genres and periods with unusual range. He is also one of the most influential writing teachers of his generation.
Key Works
- Edinburgh (2001)
- How to Write an Autobiographical Novel (2018)
Collecting Chee
Edinburgh first edition (Picador, 2001) brings $30–$60. How to Write an Autobiographical Novel (Mariner Books, 2018) first editions bring $15–$30. Chee signs frequently at literary events.