Alden Jones is an award-winning author and educator, a Fulbright Specialist, and the editor of Edge of the World: An Anthology of Queer Travel Writing.
Alden is the author of the Lambda Literary Award-nominated The Wanting Was a Wilderness, hailed as a “master class in memoir writing” by The Millions. Her previous books are the short story collection Unaccompanied Minors, winner of the New American Fiction Prize and a finalist for the Edmund White Award in Debut Fiction, and the travel memoir The Blind Masseuse, longlisted for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay. Her most recent book, as editor, is the LGBT+ travel anthology Edge of the World, a Lambda Literary Award nominee included on best-of lists by Condé Nast Traveler, Smithsonian Magazine, Sunset, Ms. Magazine, and others. Her short works of fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The Boston Globe, The Rumpus, New York Magazine, The Cut, Unherd, Agni, Off Assignment, and Best American Travel Writing. A long-time travel educator and former professor on Semester at Sea, Alden is Assistant Professor in the School of the Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies at Emerson College, and also teaches in the low-residency Newport MFA. As a Fulbright Specialist, she collaborates with writers and arts organizers in Phnom Penh, Cambodia to develop creative writing education for Cambodian institutions. She is executive producer on the upcoming documentary film, Edmund White: Never Enough.
“Edge of the World makes clear that queer travel writing isn’t just overdue—it’s transformative.” —Slate
“Alden Jones’ wonderfully edited anthology gives us 16 different perspectives on what it’s like to be an LGBTQ+ person in the world today. …Enlightening, insightful, hopeful and frightening—it’s all wrapped up in these pages.” —Smithsonian Magazine
“[An anthology] to keep on-hand in the passenger seat and readily accessible in your carry-on for the plane…the essays in Edge of the World open the mic stand to an array of writers in the LGBTQ+ community. A fine coterie of writers that includes Garrard Conley, Genevieve Hudson, and Denne Michele Norris lends an idiosyncratic voice and a real heartbeat to the destinations they’ve dreamed of, lived in, and moved through.” —Condé Nast Traveler
“This dynamic collection of queer travel writing will have you longing for the inspiration, energy and connection brought on by exploring new peoples and places.” —Ms. Magazine
Praise for Edge of the World
Book Clubs
I’m always happy to Zoom in on a virtual book club or visit book clubs IRL in the Boston area.