ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The Man Who Noticed Everything, a story collection and Van Young's first book of fiction, won Black Lawrence Press' 2011 St. Lawrence Book Award. His second book, Shadows in Summerland, a novel, was republished by Open Road Media in September, 2020. His third book of fiction, Midnight Self, a story collection, was released from Black Lawrence Press in October 2023. Van Young's fourth book of fiction, Rough Beast, a novel, will also be released from Black Lawrence Press in October 2026, to be followed by his fifth, another story collection, Family Thing, in October 2027. He is also the author of Vampire Pool Party from Madeleine Editions, a book for children. His fiction and non-fiction have been published in Electric Literature's Recommended Reading, Black Warrior Review, Conjunctions, The Southwest Review, The Believer, VICE, Slate, BOMB, Guernica, Granta, McSweeney's, The New Yorker online, and elsewhere. He regularly reviews fiction for The Southwest Review and every year on Halloween since 2020, in collaboration with fiction editor J.W. McCormack, has been publishing a new scary story in The Baffler. He is a Henfield Foundation Prize recipient, a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, and Fulbright finalist.
Van Young is also a professional freelance editor with more than a decade of experience working with private clients through his website (see Services for further details), and Black Lawrence Press' “Manuscript Consultation Program." He has taught writing & literature at Boston College, Boston University, The Buckingham, Browne & Nichols School, Grub Street Center for Creative Writing, Tulane University, The Bard Early College Program, and St. Martin's Episcopal School. He received his B.A. in English, with a concentration in creative writing, from Vassar College, and his MFA in fiction from Columbia University, where he formerly taught as well. Currently, he teaches part-time in University of New Orleans' Creative Writing MFA Program, and splits his time between Paris and New Orleans, where he lives with his family.
Van Young is also a professional freelance editor with more than a decade of experience working with private clients through his website (see Services for further details), and Black Lawrence Press' “Manuscript Consultation Program." He has taught writing & literature at Boston College, Boston University, The Buckingham, Browne & Nichols School, Grub Street Center for Creative Writing, Tulane University, The Bard Early College Program, and St. Martin's Episcopal School. He received his B.A. in English, with a concentration in creative writing, from Vassar College, and his MFA in fiction from Columbia University, where he formerly taught as well. Currently, he teaches part-time in University of New Orleans' Creative Writing MFA Program, and splits his time between Paris and New Orleans, where he lives with his family.
PRAISE
The Man Who Noticed Everything
“Adrian Van Young channels such a diversity of mighty literary voices, you’d think this book was an anthology collecting the work of the best young writers of the new generation. But in truth these stories were all written by one man: an astoundingly talented writer.” – Ben Marcus
“Adrian Van Young is the secret love-child of many authors I admire, from Ambrose Bierce to H.P. Lovecraft to Sherwood Anderson to Tobias Wolff. The stories in this collection are not easily forgotten.” – John Wray
“Adrian Van Young channels such a diversity of mighty literary voices, you’d think this book was an anthology collecting the work of the best young writers of the new generation. But in truth these stories were all written by one man: an astoundingly talented writer.” – Ben Marcus
“Adrian Van Young is the secret love-child of many authors I admire, from Ambrose Bierce to H.P. Lovecraft to Sherwood Anderson to Tobias Wolff. The stories in this collection are not easily forgotten.” – John Wray
Shadows in Summerland
“An extraordinary novel sure to enchant readers of Sarah Waters as well as those looking for a thrilling and transporting gothic tale." — Julia Fierro, author of The Gypsy Moth Summer
“A witty and disturbing horror novel . . . as if Henry James had written an issue of Tales from the Crypt." — Bennett Sims, author of Other Minds & A Questionable Shape
“[Shadows in Summerland] recalls an era no less gullible than the present one . . . Van Young's prose skillfully illuminates his gothic tale of greed, obsession, and murder." — Publishers Weekly
“A fabulous and weird addition to the contemporary fantastic." — Laird Barron, author of Not a Speck of Light
“Carefully crafted with 19th Century Gothic flare, the language in Shadows in Summerland is a potent mix of Poe’s lyricism, Lovecraft’s viscera and Dickens’ utilitarianism. One could disassemble the book, tack the pages to a wall and throw darts at them with a good chance at hitting something beautiful." — Electric Literature
“With its emphasis on the afterlife and otherworldly antics like séances and trances, Spiritualism is no stranger to the historical novel. However, it is usually only the tropes of the movement, and hardly the movement itself—unless to be debunked—that is treated in these tales. In Summerland, Van Young eschews this habit of kitsch to present a gallery of portraits—imagistic and visceral vignettes that try to capture the likeness of a social phenomenon that conned an entire nation while trying to help it heal." — Strange Horizons
“An extraordinary novel sure to enchant readers of Sarah Waters as well as those looking for a thrilling and transporting gothic tale." — Julia Fierro, author of The Gypsy Moth Summer
“A witty and disturbing horror novel . . . as if Henry James had written an issue of Tales from the Crypt." — Bennett Sims, author of Other Minds & A Questionable Shape
“[Shadows in Summerland] recalls an era no less gullible than the present one . . . Van Young's prose skillfully illuminates his gothic tale of greed, obsession, and murder." — Publishers Weekly
“A fabulous and weird addition to the contemporary fantastic." — Laird Barron, author of Not a Speck of Light
“Carefully crafted with 19th Century Gothic flare, the language in Shadows in Summerland is a potent mix of Poe’s lyricism, Lovecraft’s viscera and Dickens’ utilitarianism. One could disassemble the book, tack the pages to a wall and throw darts at them with a good chance at hitting something beautiful." — Electric Literature
“With its emphasis on the afterlife and otherworldly antics like séances and trances, Spiritualism is no stranger to the historical novel. However, it is usually only the tropes of the movement, and hardly the movement itself—unless to be debunked—that is treated in these tales. In Summerland, Van Young eschews this habit of kitsch to present a gallery of portraits—imagistic and visceral vignettes that try to capture the likeness of a social phenomenon that conned an entire nation while trying to help it heal." — Strange Horizons
Midnight Self
“These knife-sharp, hypnotic stories plunge readers into chillingly surreal and powerfully imagined worlds. Adrian Van Young uses the monstrous and the uncanny to cast brilliant light on our human form." — Laura Van Den Berg, author of I Hold a Wolf by the Ears
“Myths, pop culture, culture wars. A living, monstrous house. Death wearing khakis. Repolarized blood. Mediums. Extinction. Midnight Self is a collection of movies to be screened in a theater with one single chair: that is your skull on Van Young steroids. This is the kind of dark, great writing we need to understand our times." — Yuri Hererra, author of Ten Planets: Stories and Signs Preceding the End of the World
“Midnight Self is an exceptional collection. Every story is perfectly, unnervingly off; every page offered an image or produced a feeling I could not shake. Adrian Van Young is a master of the uncanny." — Jac Jemc, author of The Grip of It and Empty Theatre
“An outstanding collection that skitters from a strange and gigantic skin thing to an oddly transforming doll, from a house that its owner can’t stop building to a house that consumes whoever it wants, from the uprising of the past Civil War dead to the rejuvenation of future semi-artificial animals, without ever giving the reader safe ground to stand on. Midnight Self is filled with well-written, provocative terrors, and it is well worth the read." — Brian Evenson, author of The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell and Song for the Unraveling of the World
“This collection is a must-read for anyone who loves dark, mixed-genre work. Van Young plays with almost every aspect of horror fiction and never misses a beat. The language is beautiful. The characters are moving. The humor never fails to land. Occasionally, the slow-burn quality of a story might drive you a little insane, because you really need to know what happens at the end, but the wait is always worthwhile. Reading these stories is like setting foot in a haunted house, or a resurrected battlefield, or a cursed car lot. Who knows how you will emerge, if you emerge at all." — The Southwest Review
“These knife-sharp, hypnotic stories plunge readers into chillingly surreal and powerfully imagined worlds. Adrian Van Young uses the monstrous and the uncanny to cast brilliant light on our human form." — Laura Van Den Berg, author of I Hold a Wolf by the Ears
“Myths, pop culture, culture wars. A living, monstrous house. Death wearing khakis. Repolarized blood. Mediums. Extinction. Midnight Self is a collection of movies to be screened in a theater with one single chair: that is your skull on Van Young steroids. This is the kind of dark, great writing we need to understand our times." — Yuri Hererra, author of Ten Planets: Stories and Signs Preceding the End of the World
“Midnight Self is an exceptional collection. Every story is perfectly, unnervingly off; every page offered an image or produced a feeling I could not shake. Adrian Van Young is a master of the uncanny." — Jac Jemc, author of The Grip of It and Empty Theatre
“An outstanding collection that skitters from a strange and gigantic skin thing to an oddly transforming doll, from a house that its owner can’t stop building to a house that consumes whoever it wants, from the uprising of the past Civil War dead to the rejuvenation of future semi-artificial animals, without ever giving the reader safe ground to stand on. Midnight Self is filled with well-written, provocative terrors, and it is well worth the read." — Brian Evenson, author of The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell and Song for the Unraveling of the World
“This collection is a must-read for anyone who loves dark, mixed-genre work. Van Young plays with almost every aspect of horror fiction and never misses a beat. The language is beautiful. The characters are moving. The humor never fails to land. Occasionally, the slow-burn quality of a story might drive you a little insane, because you really need to know what happens at the end, but the wait is always worthwhile. Reading these stories is like setting foot in a haunted house, or a resurrected battlefield, or a cursed car lot. Who knows how you will emerge, if you emerge at all." — The Southwest Review