William Alexander

1 universe Last reviewed 2026-11-01

William Joseph Alexander was born on October 9, 1976, in Miami, Florida, and was raised in Texas and Philadelphia. He studied theater and folklore at Oberlin College and English at the University of Vermont. He is an adjunct professor in liberal arts at the Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier, Vermont. His first published speculative fiction was the short story "The Birthday Rooms", which appeared in Zahir in summer 2005 and earned a nomination for the 2006 Calvino Prize. In 2008 he wrote the essay "A Revisionist History of Earthsea" for Strange Horizons. His first novel, Goblin Secrets (2012), is set in the city of Zombay and won the 2012 National Book Award for Young People's Literature. Ghoulish Song followed in 2013. His later books include Ambassador, Nomad, A Properly Unhaunted Place, A Festival of Ghosts, The Legend of Memo Castillo and Sunward (2025).

Universe(s)

Books

• Goblin Secrets (2012) · Zombay Core Canon
• Ghoulish Song (2013) · Zombay Core Canon

Aggregate across all universes

• Total Core Canon books across all universes: 2 books
• Award recognitions across all universes: 1 (1 won)

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