Fiction Consultations with Adrian Van Young -

Adrian Van Young is the author of The Man Who Noticed Everything, a collection of stories, which won Black Lawrence Press’s St. Lawrence Book Award; the novel, Shadows in Summerland (Open Road Media); and the story collection, Midnight Self (Black Lawrence Press). He is also the author of Vampire Pool Party, a book for children (Madeleine Editions.) His fiction and non-fiction have been published in Black Warrior Review, Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading, The Baffler, Conjunctions, The Believer, BOMB, Granta, McSweeney’s and The New Yorker online. He lives in New Orleans with his family where he teaches American Literature & Creative Writing.

Adrian will provide detailed comments on your manuscript as well as a cover letter. After receiving these files, participants who submit chapbooks and full-length manuscripts may also book phone/video conferences with Adrian at no additional charge.

Adrian is accepting everything from flash fiction to novels. The fees and parameters for each of these categories is as follows:

Flash Fiction, up to two pages, $25.00
Short Stories, up to 20 pages $55.00
Chapbooks, up to 40 pages, $275.00
Novellas, up to 100 pages, $425.00
Short Story Collections, up to 180 pages, $550.00
Novels, up to 300 pages $795.00

All manuscripts should be double-spaced and formatted in 12-point font.

The deadline to submit work for this consultation program is April 30. Adrian will complete his work and respond to all participants by May 31.

Fiction Consultations with Adrian Van Young

Click Here to Submit Deadline: April 30 How to submit ›

Statement of Purpose

My philosophy of critique when it comes to fiction is to always approach the narrative on its own terms. Which is to say: I will never make the story into something it’s not. My foremost goal as a critical reader of manuscript drafts is to help the story be the best kind of story it wants to be in the most efficient way possible. So, if you have written a piece of domestic realism with an epiphanal climax that tapers into falling action, I will not try and make it into a gothic historical story. What I *will* do is zero in on issues of characterization, atmosphere, genre, space-time issues, point of view and, particularly, structure and pacing (my specialties!) to facilitate what I believe to be the best mode of storytelling given the specific aims of the writer. I will also place a separate, heavy emphasis on plot and narrative entertainment which is what, after all, keeps a reader turning pages, something many writers sorely underestimate. But, a word to the wise: I am not into polish. I believe in radical revision, i.e. modifying and rearranging large sections of narrative, if called for. And I do this behind the logic that the more urgently and completely a manuscript is re-engineered over a series of drafts, the better it promises to be when the final one emerges.

Adrian Van Young

Adrian Van Young is the author of The Man Who Noticed Everything, a collection of stories, which won Black Lawrence Press’s St. Lawrence Book Award; the novel, Shadows in Summerland (Open Road Media); and the story collection, Midnight Self (Black Lawrence Press.) He is also the author of Vampire Pool Party, a book for children (Madeleine Editions.) His fiction and non-fiction have been published in Black Warrior Review, Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading, The Baffler, Conjunctions, The Believer, BOMB, Granta, McSweeney's and The New Yorker online. He lives in New Orleans with his family where he teaches American Literature & Creative Writing.

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How to Submit

Black Lawrence Press accepts submissions and payment of the entry fee exclusively through our online submission manager, Submittable. We are not able to accept submissions via email or postal mail.

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Adrian Van Young

Works By Adrian Van Young

Midnight Self

The Man Who Noticed Everything

How to Submit