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.

  • Figures of Freedom

    Brian A. Dixon and Randy Laist are the editors of Figures of Freedom: Representations of Agency in a Time of Crisis, a new volume of essays examining how recent stories 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. The book is available from Fourth Horseman Press.

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  • Excavating Indiana Jones

    Excavating Indiana Jones: Essays on the Films and Franchise, dedicated to exploring the cultural impact of cinema’s most famous archaeologist, includes an original essay from Brian A. Dixon analyzing the character’s comic book exploits: “The Shadow of the Archaeologist: Archetypes of Evil in Marvel’s The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones.” The book is available from McFarland Press.

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  • Back to Frank Black

    Brian A. Dixon and Adam Chamberlain are the editors of Back to Frank Black: A Return to Chris Carter’s Millennium. The acclaimed volume features a number of behind-the-scenes interviews with cast and crew written by Dixon as well as an original essay from the author: “Second Sight: Profiling, Prophecy, and Deductive Reasoning in Chris Carter’s Millennium.” The book is available from Fourth Horseman Press.

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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.

Interviews

 

“That's what I want... I want to know that the character lives on. I want to see him back in the world, in the modern world, facing evil and making a difference.”

— Brian A. Dixon
Drunk Monkeys Interview

“As human beings, we’re biologically programmed to look for patterns in the world around us. The human mind can only handle so much data… That often leads us to consider the most complex explanations for why things are the way that they are... They’re unbelievable, even if we want to believe.”

— Brian A. Dixon
Dark Discoveries Interview

Podcasts

In this installment of the Fourth Horseman Press podcast, Adam Chamberlain interviews Brian A. Dixon about his perspectives on Millennium (1996-99) and Back to Frank Black: A Return to Chris Carter’s Millennium (2012). Dixon shares his view of Frank Black as the epitome of the archetypal detective as he considers the character's place in the history of the mystery genre, a role detailed in his essay, “Second Sight: Profiling, Prophecy, and Deductive Reasoning in Chris Carter’s Millennium.”

Panel Discussions

 

Community Conversations:
Mr. Jones (2019)

The biographical thriller Mr. Jones (2019) tells the story of Welsh journalist Gareth Jones (James Norton), who in March 1933 first reported on the man-made famine in Soviet Ukraine known as the Holodomor. In this Community Conversation regarding the film, Brian A. Dixon and Randy Laist reflect on issues related to history, society, and communication in the context of the Russo-Ukrainian War, with a particular emphasis on the ethics associated with writing and journalism and the importance of using the written word in a responsible way.

 
 
 

Community Conversations:
Brooklyn (2015)

The critically acclaimed period drama Brooklyn (2015), based on the novel by Colm Tóibín, follows Eilis Lacey (Saoirse Ronan), a young immigrant torn between her roots in the Irish town of Enniscorthy and the life she has made for herself in Brooklyn, New York. In this Community Conversation on the film, Brian A. Dixon and Randy Laist discuss matters of citizenship, culture, and democracy, considering the trials of the immigrant experience in a time of increasing globalization.