How to Write an Autobiographical Novel: Essays

An essay collection exploring his education as a man, writer, and activist - and how we form our identities in life and in art.As a novelist, Alexander Chee has been described as "masterful" by Roxane Gay, "incendiary" by theNew York Times,and "brilliant" by theWashington Post. WithHow to Write an Autobiographical Novel,his first collection of nonfiction, he is sure to secure his place as one of the finest essayists of his generation as well.How to Write an Autobiographical Novelis the author's manifesto on the entangling of life, literature, and politics, and how the lessons learned from a life spent reading and writing fiction have changed him. In these essays, he grows from student to teacher, reader to writer, and reckons with his identities as a son, a gay man, a Korean American, an artist, an activist, a lover, and a friend. He examines some of the most formative experiences of his life and the nation's history, including his father's death, the AIDS crisis, 9/11, the jobs that supported his writing - Tarot-reading, bookselling, cater-waiting for William F. Buckley - the writing of his first novel,Edinburgh, and the election of Donald Trump.By turns commanding, heartbreaking, and wry,How to Write an Autobiographical Novelasks questions about how we create ourselves in life and in art and how to fight when our dearest truths are under attack.ABookRiotPick of Books to Read If You Love "Pose".AnEntertainment WeeklyBest Book of the Year (So Far).AChicago Review of BooksPick of Best of the Year (So Far).ABuzzfeedBest Books of the Year (So Far).AWired MagazinePick of Must-Read Summer Titles.AnEsquire MagazinePick of Best Books of 2018 (So Far).AChristian Science Monitorselection of 2018's Most Anticipated Books.ABustlePick of Most Anticipated Books of 2018.ABitch magazinepick of Most Anticipated Nonfiction for 2018.APop SugarPick of Most Anticipated Upcoming Books.APaste MagazinePick of Most Anticipated Books of 2018.APublishers WeeklyBest Book of 2018.Read more