About me

Alexander Wells is a nonfiction writer, editor, and translator living in Berlin. His essays and reviews have been published by The Guardian, The Drift, New Left Review, The Baffler, LARB, History Today, and Meanjin among others. His main areas of focus are (East) German literature and the politics of history in Central Europe; he also writes on Czech literature, "memory culture", nature and birdlife, chronic illness—and sometimes, for old times' sake, Australia. His writing has been (e.g.) nominated for the Pushcart Prize, listed for prizes like DISQUIET and Woollahra Digital Literary Award, cited as "notable" in Best American Essays, and featured in many roundups and newsletters.

Currently he is Books Editor of the print monthly The Berliner in Berlin, where he writes reviews, interviews, and columns on local literature as well as organizing events with international authors. He is also working on a longer project about the GDR literary underground, for which he was awarded a research grant by the Berlin Senate. He is available for work as a German-to-English translator, copyeditor, and event moderator. 

Some recent writing