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Amy Alexander

Alfred Knobler Fellow

Amy Alexander, journalist, author and editor, is the 2008 Alfred Knobler Fellow at The Nation Institute. A graduate of San Francisco State University, Amy is a Distinguished Alumna of SF State's Journalism Department (May 2008).

A native San Franciscan, Amy has been a staff writer at The San Francisco Examiner, The Fresno Bee, and The Miami Herald. In
1992, she was part of a Fresno Bee team that received the
California Newspaper Publisher's Award for coverage of the Los Angeles riots. Amy has also been a regular contributor to The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and Black Issues Book Review.

Amy's articles and essays have appeared in Essence magazine, Salon.com, MSNBC.com, and The Nation. In 1998, she edited The Farrakhan Factor: African-American Writers on Leadership, Nationhood, and Minister Louis Farrakhan (Grove), an anthology of 16 different pieces from a wide range of authors, including academics, community activists, poets, journalists, and historians, among them some current and former members of the Nation of Islam. She is author of Fifty Black Women Who Changed America (Kensington, 1999), and co-author, with Alvin Poussaint, MD, of Lay My Burden Down: Suicide and the Mental Health Crisis Among African-Americans (Beacon, 2000). In 2001, Amy and Dr. Poussaint received the Lifesaver Award from the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention for their collaboration.

From 2000 to 2005, Amy wrote a twice-monthly column on race and the American press at Africana.com, later AOL's BlackVoices.com. Since 2005, Amy has been a commentator at National Public Radio, and, in 2007, served as Associate Producer on the launch team of NPR's new talk program, Tell Me More, with Michel Martin. She is currently at work on a book examining race and media for Beacon Press.

Recent Appearances:

Amy Alexander on Democracy Now!
Appearance | Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman | July 25, 2008

Amy Alexander on RadioNation
Radio Appearance | RadioNation | March 14, 2008

Subway Rescue a Welcome Challenge to Stereotypes
Radio Appearance | NPR | January 8, 2007

Selected Articles and Appearances:

Sarah's Steel Ones
Commentary | The Nation | September 12, 2008

The Color Line Online
Article | The Nation | July 16, 2008

Media Chickens Come Home To Roost...
Blog Post | The Nation | March 19, 2008

Truth and Consequences
Article | The Nation | March 6, 2008

Black Women Talk Barack
Commentary | The Nation | February 11, 2008

Southern Winds of Change
Book Review | The Washington Post | January 8, 2008

Diplomatic Immunity
Book Review | The Washington Post | June 26, 2007

Read the rest of Amy Alexander's columns at The Washington Post here.
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Salvation Boulevard

A novel

By Larry Beinhart

From the Edgar Award-winning novelist and author of Wag the Dog and The Librarian comes a new mystery novel about a private investigator and a case that tests his courage, character and soul. The victim is an atheist professor, the main suspect—who has confessed and is in custody—a Muslim foreign student, the defense attorney a Jew and the detective a born-again Christian. The New York Times says of Beinhart, "The man can really write."

Read glowing reviews of the book in the Chicago Sun-Times and the San Diego Union Tribune. More


Clive Stafford Smith on PBS Documentary

October 16 - November 20 | PBS Affiliates
Watch Nation Books author Clive Stafford Smith in a new PBS documentary, Torturing Democracy. Stafford Smith is the author of Eight o' Clock Ferry to the Windward Side and founder of the legal charity, Reprieve, whose clients include prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

November 23 | 10 am
Amy Alexander at Watergate Conference
(Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.)
Listen to Institute Fellow Amy Alexander talk with fellow panelists about how bloggers are changing politics. This event is part of the National Association of Black Journalists' Watergate Conference on Political and Congressional Reporting: Did Politics Change the Media or Did Media Change Politics? MORE

December 7 | 4 pm
Gary Younge Pays Tribute to Studs Terkel
(Great Hall, Cooper Union, NYC)
Institute Fellow Gary Younge will be one of the luminaries paying tribute to the life of legendary oral historian and activist Studs Terkel, who died on October 31 at the age of 96. The event will be open to the public and free of charge. MORE

December 8
The Nation Institute Annual Dinner Gala
(Metropolitan Pavilion, NYC)
The Nation Institute's Annual Gala Dinner is Monday, December 8 at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York. Special guests include Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood; comedian Lewis Black; and Katrina vanden Heuvel, Editor and Publisher of The Nation. MORE

January 15 | 8:30 am
Deepa Fernandes Wins North Star News Prize
(4 Times Square, NYC)
Institute Fellow Deepa Fernandes is one of three winners of the North Star News Prize, which recognizes people of color who have made outstanding contributions to journalism, media and communications, and public understanding of the struggle for social justice. MORE


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