Alex London (who has also published under the names Charles London and C. Alexander London) is an American author for children and young adults, and adults, having authored picture books, middle grade and young fiction, as well as adult nonfiction. He has worked as a journalist and human rights researcher reporting from conflict zones and refugee camps, a young adult librarian with New York Public Library, and a snorkel salesman.[1] He lives with his husband and daughter in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[2]
Early life and education
Alex London was born in 1980 in Baltimore, Maryland and attended the Gilman School.[3] He graduated in 2002 from Columbia University, where he studied philosophy. In 2010, he earned a master's degree in library and information science from Pratt Institute.
Career
London has published in a variety of genres (fantasy, science fiction, historical fiction, contemporary, and nonfiction), working with several of the Big Five publishing houses including Scholastic, Penguin Random House, Macmillan, and HarperCollins.[4] His books have sold an estimated 2.5 million copies around the world and been translated into 7 languages, as well as being optioned for film and television.[5][better source needed]
At the inaugural BookCon in 2014, he conducted the opening keynote conversation with best-selling YA author Veronica Roth.[6]
London worked as a research associate for Refugees International while researching the book that would become One Day the Soldiers Came,[7][8] and served as a Truman National Security Project Fellow in 2009. In 2015, he was appointed to the board of YALLFest,[9] a young adult literature festival in Charleston, SC.
LGBTQ representation
His 2013 young adult novel, Proxy, was one of the only mainstream dystopian YA novels during the dystopian boom of the 2010s to feature a gay protagonist.[10]
In a 2016 essay, he explored why it was important to him to be out as a gay author in the children's book space,[11] and he has been noted for the inclusion of the LGBTQ+ characters and themes in his diverse array of stories.[12]
His 2018 novel, Black Wings Beating, received starred reviews from Kirkus and School Library Journal, which recommended it for "all libraries that serve teens". The New York Times called it "wondrous"[13] and it was an NBC Today Show Pick, which Isaac Fitzgerald called "a YA fantasy unlike any you’ve read before".[14] It was a Rainbow List Selection, a Kirkus Best Young Adult Fantasy of 2018 selection, a Seventeen Magazine best of 2018 pick, a Paste Magazine best of 2018 pick, and We Need Diverse Books 2018 Must Read.[15]
In 2022, he helped write an author letter against book banning that was read into the record by Congressman Jamie Raskin.[16]
In 2023, YouTuberHbomberguy revealed that London's Reactor essay about Stephen King's IT[17] was among the pieces plagiarized in James Somerton's videos on LGBTQ representation in pop culture.[18]
In 2023, there was an attempt to ban his middle grade fantasy Battle Dragons series in Kentucky[19] because of the inclusion of a non-binary character, but the ban was reversed.[20]
Bibliography
Adult nonfiction
One Day The Soldiers Came: Voices of Children in War (2007) HarperPerennial
Far From Zion: In Search of a Global Jewish Community (2009) William Morrow
