David Jackson Ambrose’s debut novel, State of the Nation (2018) was selected as a finalist for the 2019 Lambda Literary Award for gay fiction.

David describes his work as “a focus on marginalized people and the ways identities are shaped by a confluence of the prison industrial complex, the mental health factory, (both of which he refers to as neo-plantations) and police state apparatus as it collides with gender, sexuality and the construct of race to impose disability and hierarchy as part of the design of American capitalism.”

David’s sophomore novel, A Blind Eye (2021 NineStar Press) explores the gradations of domestic abuse in both parental and same sex relationships and the opacity of perceptions of race.

Unlawful DISorder (2022 Jaded Ibis Press) examines the intersections of race, identity, and mental illness, as the main character, Bowie Long, becomes a pawn in the prison system that has become the default that replaces mental health treatment for many of America’s poor and marginalized citizens.

He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania (Africana Studies), and holds an MA from Saint Joseph’s University and an MFA from Temple University.

“…David Jackson Ambrose once again proves himself to be a master storyteller of the stories America refuses to hear.”

Jennifer Natalya Fink, Professor, Georgetown University, author of All Our Families: Disability Lineage and the Future of Kinship

“… a cutting portrayal of the failings of America’s mental health system.”

John R. Gordon, author of Drapetomania; Noah’s Arc