Eris Young
I’m a queer, transgender writer of speculative fiction and nonfiction.
stories
Broderie Écossaise
Forthcoming in NOVA SCOTIA 2, LUNA PRESS; Aug 2024
A follow-up volume to Nova Scotia: New Scottish Speculative Fiction (2005), published to coincide with Glasgow Worldcon in August.
Lacquer Cabinet Trick
GIGANOTOSAURUS, May 2024 (free to read)
A long-length sapphic historical fantasy story: The Prestige meets Fingersmith
“Young builds up a cross-genre experience that is part mystery, part romance, part courtroom drama, and part gaslight fantasy, blending the disparate elements into a seamless and captivating whole. At its heart, the story deals with prejudice and fate and the prices often paid for resisting both. But there is strength and fortune (as well as very entertaining reading) to be found when people marginalized by the system stand together, and defy the forces pushing them toward destruction and ruination. That the story’s structure follows the steps of the sisters’ signature trick adds a nice layer of misdirection and flourish, and it all comes together quite well.”
Idomeneja
PSEUDOPOD 831; 7 – 10 – 2022 (free to read/listen)
“OH MY. If you want an unsettling, disturbing horror tale that burrows into the ground, into an ancient grave, and into the past and into history to bring you a different kind of blood-drinking creature, then this story is most certainly for you… I loved every delicious drop of this story and the way it plays around with perspective and power.”
Maria Haskins
All That Water
BFS HORIZONS 14; 5 – 10 – 2022
IMMIGRANT SCI-FI SHORT STORIES anthology, Flame Tree Publishing; 14 – 3 – 2023
first place winner, 2021 British Fantasy Society short story competition
reprinted in IMMIGRANT SCI FI SHORT STORIES
Deal
ESCAPE POD 769; 2021 (free to read/listen)
Featured on the Nerds of a Feather 2022 Hugo Award Recommended Reading List
“A beautiful story of an Earth visited by aliens and the complex lines of help and love. The piece is careful while still showing people with their messy edges and I just really like this one a lot.”
Charles Payseur, Quick Sip Reviews
The Collector of Cursed Objects
It Brought the Snow
BEWILDERING STORIES MAGAZINE; 2017
EXPANDED HORIZONS; 2018
DEFENESTRATIONISM!; 2021 (free to read/listen)
Finalist, 2021 DEFENESTRATIONISM! short story competition
short nonfiction
What it's like to live as a trans person in Scotland
THE NATIONAL, with Kez Rush and Purina Alpha
2021
my books
How do we experience attraction?
What does love mean to us?
When did you realise you were ace?
This is the ace community in their own words.
Drawing upon interviews with a wide range of people across the asexual spectrum, ACE VOICES is an empowering, enriching journey through the rich multitudes of asexual, aromantic, demi and gray-a life.
With chapters spanning everything from dating, relationships and sex, to mental and emotional health, family, community and joy, the inspirational stories and personal experiences within these pages speak to aces living and loving in unique ways. Find support amongst the diverse narratives of aces sex-repulsed and sex-favourable, alongside voices exploring what it means to be black and ace, to be queer and ace, or ace and multi-partnered – and use it as a springboard for your own ace growth, or to better support the ace and ace-spectrum people in your own life.
‘The go-to book on everything non-binary’ MEG-JOHN BARKER
‘A succinct tour through the non-binary and genderqueer experience’ PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this insightful and long-overdue book, Eris Young explores what it’s like to live outside of the gender binary and how it can impact on one’s relationships, sense of identity, use of language and more.
Drawing on the author’s own experiences as a nonbinary person, as well as interviews and research, it shares common experiences and challenges faced by those who are nonbinary, and what friends, family and other cisgender people can do to support them. Breaking down misconceptions and providing definitions, the history of nonbinary identities and gender-neutral language, and information on healthcare, this much-needed guide is for anyone wanting to fully understand nonbinary and genderqueer identities.
freelance services
I offer editorial and sensitivity-reading services at the rates listed below, and am available for speaking engagements about any of my work. I also run creative writing workshops around various topics including building tension in genre fiction by controlling the flow of information (a sold-out workshop held at cymera festival in 2022), writing dialogue, and fantasy worldbuilding.
If you'd like to engage my services please get in touch via email.
I was a 2023 finalist for the IPSE freelancer awards, for my work as a sensitivity/authenticity reader for transgender, nonbinary, queer, ace-spectrum and neurodivergent (ADHD) characters/themes. I offer SR services at the following rate:
£.01 / word for works up to 100,000 words, minimum £50
I also offer short story critiques (up to ~10,000 words):
£.008 / word, minimum £25
If you're looking to arrange an author visit or event related to my nonfiction books, please copy in my publicist, Harry Taylor, or my agent, Alex Cochran.
contact, presskit, and about me
contact and socials
author bios
for speculative fiction:
Eris Young is a queer, transgender writer of speculative fiction. Their work has appeared in Pseudopod, Fusion Fragment, Escape Pod and Metastellar, as well as anthologies including the Immigrant Sci Fi Short Stories anthology from Flame Tree Press. Their short story, All That Water, won first prize in the 2021 British Fantasy Society short story competition. They are an editor at Shoreline of Infinity magazine, were the writer-in-residence at Lighthouse, Edinburgh's radical bookshop, from 2019 – 2022, and in 2020 received a Scottish Book Trust New Writer Award for fiction.
for nonfiction:
Eris Young is a queer, transgender writer of fiction and nonfiction. Their books They/Them/Their: A guide to nonbinary and genderqueer identities (2019) and Ace Voices: What it means to be asexual, aromantic, demi or gray-ace (2022), are published by Jessica Kingsley. They were the writer-in-residence at Lighthouse, Edinburgh's radical bookshop, from 2019 – 2022, in 2020 received a Scottish Book Trust New Writer Award for fiction, and are a 2023 IPSE Freelancer Award finalist, in the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion category.
a little more about me
I split my time between Santa Ana, California (lands first inhabited by the Tongva and Acjachemen people) and Edinburgh, Scotland. My interests besides writing include cooking and mycology, and if I'm not at my desk you can often find me in the woods looking for interesting fungus.
I'm currently the fiction editor at Shoreline of Infinity, Scotland's sci fi magazine. I was the Writer in Residence at Lighthouse, Edinburgh's radical bookshop, from 2019 - 2022. In 2020, I was awarded a Scottish Book Trust New Writer Award for fiction. In 2023, my novel-in-progress, Idomeneja, Or, The Death Mask, was longlisted for the Cheshire Novel Prize.
past event recordings
Instagram Live session with Relationship Coach Ali Hendry, February, 2023
Ok, bye now.