Brian Alessandro

Brian Alessandro is the Editor-in-Chief of The New Engagement (TNE), a literary journal with a fast-growing social media following. They have published or will be publishing original work by several well-known authors, including Edmund White (his first poem in sixteen years), Murzban F Shroff, MG Stephens, Seamus Scanlon, Nadia Ibrashi, and Michael Carroll, whose memoir explores his marriage to White. TNE's inaugural print issue will be published in late-April 2017. The journal has also been included in the EBSCOhost humanities section available to college and university libraries and in the Poets & Writers literary magazines database. TNE was recently featured in the LGBTQ Writers Caucus for the AWP and will soon be profiled by Carroll in Lambda Book Review. Brian's first novel, "The Unmentionable Mann," was published by Cairn Press in September 2015, and received favorable reviews from the Huffington Post Gay Voices, Examiner.com, The Leaf, HiConcept, and was excerpted in Bloom, the Edmund White-advised LGBTQ literary journal. It was also featured at the 2016 Tucson Festival of Books and nominated for an Independent Book Publisher Association (IBPA) award for Best New Voice. Brian also wrote and directed the feature film, "Afghan Hound," which has screened on Netflix, and at The Left Forum and The Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy, and co-stars Matt McGorry from "Orange is The New Black" and "How to Get Away With Murder." Additionally, HiConcept recently nominated Brian's short story, "Mandarin Slang," for a Pushcart Prize. He holds a master of arts in clinical psychology from Columbia University.