About
I’m a writer, audio producer, editor, and teacher living in Western Massachusetts.
My first book, The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight, about the world of blindness (and figuring out my place in it), was a finalist for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize in Memoir.
A web feature I wrote for the New Yorker about DeafBlind communication won the 2023 Linguistic Journalism Award from the Linguistic Society of America. I’ve also contributed to the New York Times Magazine., New York magazine, the New Yorker Radio Hour, Radiolab, 99 Percent Invisible, and elsewhere.
To inquire about booking a speaking engagement, please contact Leslie Shipman: leslie@theshipmanagency.com
From 2013–2019, I hosted and produced the Organist, an arts-and-culture podcast, for KCRW.
I’ve taught journalism (magazine and radio), creative nonfiction, audio, disability studies, and “digital storytelling” (?) at Wesleyan University, Smith College, UMass-Amherst, and the University of Missouri.
I’ve been an editor at the Believer since 2003, and I’ve edited books for McSweeney’s and Chronicle Books.
Photos
If you need a photo of me for your event-listing page or similar, I’m partial to these that Ahndraya Parlato took. If you use one, please credit Ahndraya Parlato and include alt text.
Photo by Ahndraya Parlato.
More photos by Ahndraya Parlato, with full-size downloads
Get in touch
My email address is aleland@fastmail.com. I’m on Signal at andrewleland.99.
Social media I usually enjoy using:
Social media I get some value out of, but almost always end up feeling bad in some way if I use it for more than thirty seconds:
Listed in descending order of how bad the platform makes me feel about myself and the world: