B. Alexandra Szerlip is the author of The Man Who Designed the Future: Norman Bel Geddes and the Invention of Twentieth Century America, which was voted one of the Top Ten Art Books of 2017 by the American Library Association.
She was a two-time National Endowment of the Arts Fellow, a two-time Yaddo Fellow, and recipient of a 2019 Excellence in Journalism award from the Society of Professional Journalists (despite the fact that she doesn't consider herself a journalist).
Recent articles by Szerlip have appeared in Paris Review Daily, Berfrois and Rabbit Hole (Asia's answer to The New Yorker), and she created The Believer's "Vintage Tech" column. Current projects include an illustrated history of F.F. Coppola's iconic Sentinel Building in San Francisco and an exploration of how bioluminescence has informed human imagination throughout history.
At MacDowell in 2022, she began work on a creative exploration of bioluminescence and human imagination. Working in Calderwood studio for a month, with its huge skylight, picture windows, and its wall-length cork board, proved an ideal work space for thinking about and organizing a vast amount of information. She also began a series of acrylic illustrations to augment the text.
