Young Writers

July 29th 2005 at 2:54 am

John Joseph Adams, asst. editor of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, aka the Slush God (or He Who Must Be Appeased), is coming up with a list of SF/F writers in their 20s on his website with at least one professional sale under their belt. He’s got quite a list going, with links even.

One of the reasons I participated with the Alpha workshop was that I’m still a qualifying ‘young dude’ at 26. I made my first pro sale at 19. I started writing at 15. I’ve sold 21 pro short stories over 7 years since my first sale. 7 years feels like forever. So does the 12 years total I’ve put in, and yet I’m still always pretty much the youngest writer in any given room I hang out in, though I imagine that will begin to change in the next couple years (I hope).

I wonder if I would have been as fired up at 15 if I future version of me travelled back in time and said ‘Look, homes, it’s gonna be like 15 years before anything ever happens big with this writing thing, you sure you want to be spending your spare time every damn night on this thing like a second job?’

I’m sitting here reflexively nodding ‘yes’ even now. Writing, it’s a beautiful form of mental masochism.

Anyway, if you know of any other writers in their 20s that JJA hasn’t picked up on, or just want to go see the fresh new faces of the genre’s future, go forth and click around, many of them are blogging or have websites.

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