This week on Redefining Family Jonathan interviews author Jonathan Alexander. Jonathan first talks about his struggles growing up in the deep south, especially once he decided he wanted to come out. He turned 18 at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic and he tried to come out in college, however there was no real support or community for LGBTQ+ individuals.

Jonathan then discusses how he ended up marrying a woman and the realizations they both came to about their relationship before the split. Additionally, Jonathan talks about learning to love himself as a kid and his close relationship with his mother.

******

About Jonathan Alexander

Jonathan Alexander is a writer living in Southern California where he is Chancellor’s Professor of English at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author, co-author, or editor of twenty-one books. His cultural journalism has been widely published, especially in the Los Angeles Review of Books (LARB) for which he is the Special Projects Editor. He is also the host of LARB’s “Writing Sex,” a YouTube series of short interviews with contemporary writers on sex and sexuality. (Previous guests include Garth Greenwell, Andre Aciman, and Dennis Cooper.) LARB founding editor Tom Lutz has called Alexander one of “our finest essayists.” He lives with his husband and cat, and when not writing, dabbles in watercolors and plays piano in a music ensemble with friends. For more about Jonathan Alexander and his books please visit www.thecreeptrilogy.com and www.the-blank-page.com.

Twitter: @profjalexander
Instagram: profjalexanderART