Brian A. Dixon

Brian A. Dixon is a writer, cultural studies scholar, and media critic. His fiction has appeared in the pages of publications such as Connecticut Review, Zahir, A Thousand Faces, and The Beacon. His drama has been seen Off-Broadway. His academic writings include studies concerning multimedia in the classroom, nineteenth-century American literature, detectives in film and fiction, ethnic humor in British sitcoms, archetypes in comic books, the works of Ian Fleming, and the James Bond films. Dixon has served as the assistant editor of ATQ: The American Transcendental Quarterly and as the editor of Revelation: Apocalyptic Art and Literature. He has edited volumes including Figures of Freedom: Representations of Agency in a Time of Crisis (2024), the acclaimed television retrospective  Back to Frank Black: A Return to Chris Carter’s Millennium (2012), and Columbia & Britannia: An Alternate History (2009), nominated for the 2010 Sidewise Award for Alternate History.

Fiction

  • "The McMillen Golf Penalty"

    McMillen State Penitentiary is as harsh as any prison, but for one inmate the facility's weekly miniature golf games offer an opportunity for escape.

    Short Story. Connecticut Review (Vol. XXIV No. 1) Spring 2002: 191-196. Print. Winner: Shannon Searles Fiction Prize.

  • "The McMillen Golf Penalty"

    McMillen State Penitentiary is as harsh as any prison, but for one inmate the facility's weekly miniature golf games offer an opportunity for escape.

    Reprint of the Shannon Searles Fiction Prize Winner. Short Story. Weston Spring 2003: 196-199. Print.

  • "This Petty Pace"

    Scientific advances allow a brilliant physicist and his eager protégé to become the first men in human history to look into the future, where they glimpse unimaginable horror.

    Short Story. Zahir (No. 7) Summer 2005: 13-18. Print.

  • "Off the Record"

    When police and reporters converge on the scene of an industrial accident, the stage is set for an unexpected confrontation with Oklahoma City's most beloved costumed superhero, the Cyclone.

    Short Story. A Thousand Faces (Iss. 3) Winter 2008: 77-86. Print.

  • "Intolerable Acts"

    In the colonies of British North America, a love triangle that entwines three powerful political infleunces threatens to disrupt the course of the empire’s history.

    Short Story. Columbia & Britannia: An Alternate History. Fourth Horseman Press, 2009. Print.

  • "The Last Day of the Old World"

    British North America is poised to land the first Englishman on the moon, but celebrations are threatened by the empire's history of cultural erasure.

    Short Story. Columbia & Britannia: An Alternate History. Fourth Horseman Press, 2009. Print.

  • "The Rejuvenated Lojeski"

    The Illuminating Lojeski is a washed-up stage magician with a secret so shameful that he is now hunted by a gang of desperate children through the streets of a lakeside town.

    Short Story. Live Free or Sci-Fi. Plaidswede, 2013. Print.

  • "Phantom Fury"

    The Second Battle of Fallujah has left its mark on Gunnery Sergeant Gutteridge, a truth he is forced to confront when he is delivered a terrifying diagnosis by an army surgeon.

    Short Story. The Beacon (Iss. 3) Summer 2014: 33-36. Print.

  • "Enemy Unseen"

    At Bromsgrove School for Boys, a troubled student's obsessive behavior leads a teacher to consider the role played by science in the battle against the real enemy of World War I’s trench warfare: infection.

    Short Story. The Beacon (Iss. 4) Fall 2015. 7-8. Print.

  • "Cocktails with the Whales"

    Attending a lavish fundraiser held in an aquarium, oil company executive Sandra Bates comes to a fresh understanding of the corporate food chain.

    With Adam Chamberlain. Short Story. Honeyguide (Iss. 9) November 2024: 69-72. Print.

Books

  • Figures of Freedom

    Figures of Freedom: Representations of Agency in a Time of Crisis (2024), edited by Brian A. Dixon and Randy Laist, examines how recent narratives in literature, on television, and in film have reimagined themes of personal and political agency in the context of twenty-first-century aspirations and anxieties.

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  • Back to Frank Black

    Back to Frank Black: A Return to Chris Carter’s Millennium (2012), the acclaimed television retrospective co-edited with Adam Chamberlain, features a number of behind-the-scenes interviews with cast and crew written by Brian A. Dixon as well as an original essay from the author.

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  • Columbia & Britannia

    Columbia & Britannia: An Alternate History (2009), edited by Brian A. Dixon and Adam Chamberlain, reimagines the course of world events through vivid speculative storytelling and imaginative artifacts. The anthology was nominated for the 2010 Sidewise Award for Alternate History.

    Read On