Alexander Chee

All This Is My Protest Work

Intimate conversations with our greatest heart-centered minds.

Photo @Robert Gill

I was late coming to the work of Alexander Chee. Post-head/brain injury, I’m a slow reader. Whereas I once easily devoured two books a week, it can now take a month to read one. However, I keep a keen watch on friends’ recommendations and do my best to read those with the consistently supersonic raves. Most disappoint. So I began reading the much touted How To Write An Autobiographical Novel with trepidation. Happily, I quickly realized it was about to become one of my favorite-ever books.

The essays are magnificent renderings of what it takes to be a human in today’s world. The writing precise, tender, lyrical, tight, thoughtful, and undaunted. “The Rosary” in particular sunk into my blood cells. Viewing a shabby Brooklyn apartment, Chee has a vision of roses in the broken-down garden beds out back. Despite the real estate agent’s attempts to steer him elsewhere, he signs the lease and plants the roses. It’s a tale of gardening but also resurrection, a curious amount of buried bones, feral cats, and the ability to manifest what we most need, even if we don’t realize we need it.

After that, I read everything Alex wrote. Edinburgh with its unflinching study of childhood sexual abuse, and the ensuing grief, shame, guilt, and trauma brought me to my knees. Queen of the Night is lush and dark, yet full of whimsy. Set in 1882 Paris, Lilliet Berne is a legendary opera singer offered a signature role in a new opera, only to discover it’s based on her own life and her own secrets. Alex’s essays have appeared in GQ and The Paris Review, amongst many others. He also has some wonderful essays on Medium, and his tweets are pretty marvelous, too.

Alex was born in Rhode Island to a Korean father and a Scottish-American mother. Growing up he lived in South Korea, Kauai, Truk, Guam, and Maine. He attended Wesleyan University and Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He’s been a recipient of the Whiting Award and NEA Fellowship. In 2021, Alex was named both a United States Artist Fellow and a Guggenheim Fellow. He teaches creative writing at Dartmouth. Alex edited the 2022 edition of Best American Essays and curated an American Fiction Box for Boxwalla. He’s also an all-round generous and thoughtful soul—consistently raising awareness about issues such as racism, misogyny, and the health of our planet; keeping us up to date on important tv shows and movies; offering humor when possible; and supporting fellow writers.

We chatted about roses, the role of the writer during political unrest, and intuition.

You’ve had some recent-ish changes in your life, such as moving to Vermont. What are enjoying most about your life right now?

I had a neighbor drop off some zucchini and chocolate chip bread. I have another neighbor who makes his own honey, and brings that by, as well as extra vegetables from his garden. Another neighbor runs a feminist CBD collective. It’s a very small town, about 720 people, half an hour from Dartmouth, and is mostly a mix of educators, some of whom work at Dartmouth, most of whom don't. And farm people. And some families that have been here a long time and do a mix of different things. This is the first time anybody threw me a welcome to the neighborhood party and I liked everybody I met.

I’d picked the place because of the land and because of the house. It has a writing cabin in the back that was, at the time, more of a shack. We fixed it up so it's four seasons now and insulated. That’s a really powerful thing to be able to go in and experience.

Selfie in the window of Alex’s writing cabin.

Is that where you do all your writing?