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.

Selected Articles and Appearances:

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

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

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

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