Alexandra grew up doing theater in Iowa, went to college for opera in Michigan, and now lives in Chicago where she surrounds herself with words. In middle school she volunteered to be a library helper so she could get the override code and check out more than six books to herself at once. A sign of things to come, she spent most of her childhood (and adulthood, to be honest) with her nose in a book.
After spending the first half of her life pursuing a career in the performing arts, and a few very stressful years teaching music at a middle school, she became a teen services librarian in Chicago. She now spends her days helping young people make cool stuff and trying to talk them out of inviting their ex to prom. She also doesn't have to grade anything or give exams, which is pretty great.
She started her writing career with creative non-fiction, writing a blog that no longer exists (and nobody read anyway). She performed with 2nd Story and OutSpoken in Chicago, before realizing that she was allowed to make up her own stories about her own imaginary people. Once she did, she never looked back.
Alexandra received her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults at Hamline University which was the single best things she's ever done for herself and introduced her to an incredible community of writers and mentors. In 2023, she was selected as a fellow for the Lambda Literary Emerging Writers Retreat.
Alexandra’s debut young adult novel I Don’t Belong To You will be published by Norton Young Readers in 2027.
She is represented by Sara Crowe at Sara Crowe Literary.
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I usually write on my laptop in my Writing Chair - a comfy, gray, oversized armchair - except when I’m revising, which I do by hand in my Remarkable and then at my desk.
And except when my cats need my attention, or when I’m trying to sneaky draft at my day job, or when I’m writing at a coffee shop (see also: cats needing attention).
Basically, I write whenever and wherever I can, but I prefer to write in my Writing Chair. -
I describe myself as a Building Block Writer. I plan. A lot. I outline and summarize and rethink and outline and summarize and rethink. And then I usually write around 20K words and then rethink everything I wrote and start over….
And I do this… many times.
It’s not efficient. But I’ve learned that I need the first third of the book to be a very solid foundation before I can move on.
I will often spend months and months on that first third or so of a novel. But when I finally get past it, the rest of the draft usually happens pretty quickly, because I’ve already set everything up.
After I finish a first draft (which is usually pretty clean because of all the starting over) I send it to a beta reader or two and get their feedback.
Then I revise and repeat, if I’ve made big changes, otherwise I send it to my agent. She gives me her thoughts and I revise again until we both feel it’s ready to go out on submission.
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My biggest piece of writing advice is this: before you implement ANY piece of writing advice, really think about what assumptions it’s making about your brain and your life, and ask yourself if it would fix a problem you genuinely have?
Not every writing technique or method or process is right for everyone.
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Yes! I have two cats, Luna and Stella. They are sisters and they’re all black - toe beans, whiskers, everything.
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I have many favorite books! Some of them are:
The Miseducation of Cameron Post by emily danforth
White Oleander by Janet Fitch
The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schefer
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
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Again, so many!
I love anything by Stephen Sondheim, but Merrily We Roll Along is my favorite. I’m obsessed with the backwards chronology and how it facilitates such a heartbreaking and bittersweet ending.
I also love Come From Away, Hadestown, and Ragtime.
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Prelude from Bach Suite No. 1 in G Major.
It’s very famous. I 100% guarantee if you google it, you’ll be like ‘oh yeah, I’ve heard that.’
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I have six tattoos. Some are big, some are small. One covers up a really cringe tattoo I got in college. All are meaningful in different ways.
