Neon Yang

Neon Yang,[1] formerly JY Yang, is a Singaporean writer of English-language speculative fiction best known for the Tensorate series of novellas published by Tor.com, which have been finalists for the Hugo Award, Locus Award, Nebula Award, World Fantasy Award, Lambda Literary Award, British Fantasy Award, and Kitschie Award.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8] The first novella in the series, The Black Tides of Heaven, was named one of the 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time by Time Magazine.[9][10] Their debut novel, The Genesis of Misery, the first book in The Nullvoid Chronicles, was published in 2022 by Tor Books, received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, received a nomination for the 2022 Goodreads Choice Award for Science Fiction, and was a Finalist for the 2023 Locus Award for Best First Novel and 2023 Compton Crook Award.[11][12][13][14][15]

Neon Yang
Born1982 or 1983 (age 40–41)
OccupationWriter
LanguageEnglish
NationalitySingapore
EducationUniversity of East Anglia (MFA)
Genre
Notable worksTensorate series
Website
neonyang.com

Biography

Yang is non-binary and queer, and uses they pronouns.[16] They legally changed their name to "Neon" in 2020.[1] They have a master's degree in creative writing from the University of East Anglia[17] and were a member of the 2013 class of the Clarion West Writers Workshop.[18]

Career

Yang has published short fiction since 2012 in publications such as Clarkesworld, Lightspeed Magazine, Uncanny Magazine, Apex Magazine and Strange Horizons.[19] Their novelette, "Waiting on a Bright Moon" was a top ten finalist for the 2018 Locus Award for Best Novelette.[20] Their novelette, "Circus Girl, The Hunter, and Mirror Boy" was a finalist for the 2020 Ignyte Award.[21] Their novelette, "A Stick of Clay, in the Hands of God, Is Infinite Potential" was a top ten finalist for the 2021 Locus Award for Best Novelette.[22]

Their Tensorate series of novellas began in 2017 with the simultaneously released The Black Tides of Heaven and The Red Threads of Fortune, which were published by Tor.com to critical acclaim.[23] The Black Tides of Heaven received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, which called it "a captivating Buddhist-inspired steampunk setting" that "captures an epic sweep in compact, precise prose", and a positive review from Library Journal, which called it (and its sibling volume, The Red Threads of Fortune) "an impressive, fresh debut steeped in Chinese culture".[24][25] The Red Threads of Fortune was also reviewed by Publishers Weekly, which said "though not as gripping as [The Black Tides of Heaven], the novella authentically depicts trauma and lays promising groundwork for future books in the series".[26] The Black Tides of Heaven was a finalist for the 2017 Nebula Award for Best Novella, the 2018 Hugo Award for Best Novella, the 2018 World Fantasy Award for Best Novella, and the 2018 Kitschies Golden Tentacle, and was named one of the 100 best fantasy novels of all time by a Time magazine panel.[2][3][4][5][8][9][10] The Tensorate series continued with the novellas The Descent of Monsters in 2018 and The Ascent to Godhood in 2019.[27][28] The Descent of Monsters was a finalist for the 2019 Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ SF/F/Horror and the 2019 Locus Award for Best Novella.[6][29] The Ascent to Godhood received a positive review from Publishers Weekly, which called it "a thrilling adventure [that] stands alone, as well as providing moving, complicated backstory for the earlier books", and was a Finalist for the 2020 Locus Award for Best Novella and the 2020 British Fantasy Award for Best Novella.[30][31][7]

Yang's debut novel, The Genesis of Misery, the first in The Nullvoid Chronicles trilogy, was announced by Tor Books in 2020, published in September 2022, and described as a retelling of the story of Joan of Arc as a mecha space opera.[32][18][12] The Genesis of Misery received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, which called it a "vibrant tour de force" and "a triumph", noting that it "presents a simultaneous embrace and inversion of Chosen One narratives" and its "themes of faith, suffering, queerness, and duty".[11]

Themes

Yang's work revolves around "the human body as a vessel for storytelling", and is based on their background as a molecular biologist, journalist and science communicator.[33] They have described themself as "a deep pessimist about human nature," saying that "the best we can do is to recognize this and mitigate that assholic nature when we can. I think, ultimately, that’s what most of my stories end up being about."[17] They have referenced David Mitchell, Helen Oyeyemi, and William Gibson as influences on their writing.[17]

Yang has described their Tensorate novellas as "queer Asian science fantasy."[34] The series has been described as "silkpunk" by reviewers.[23]

Awards and nominations

Bibliography

Novels

The Nullvoid Chronicles trilogy

  1. The Genesis of Misery, Tor Books, 2022

Tensorate series
  1. The Black Tides of Heaven, Tor.com, 2017, ISBN 978-0-7653-9541-2
  2. The Red Threads of Fortune, Tor.com, 2017, ISBN 978-0-7653-9540-5
  3. The Descent of Monsters, Tor.com, 2018, ISBN 978-1250165855
  4. The Ascent to Godhood, Tor.com, 2019, ISBN 9781250165886

The four volumes were collected in an omnibus edition: The Tensorate Series, Tor.com, 2021, ISBN 9781250807540

Standalone
  • Between the Firmaments, Book Smugglers Publishing, 2018 ISBN 978-1942302827

Collections

Stories
Title Year Length First published
"Interview" 2012 Short story The Ayam Curtain, Math Paper Press
"The War Going on Beneath Us" 2012 Short story The Ayam Curtain, Math Paper Press
"Where No Cars Go" 2012 Short story Fish Eats Lion: New Singaporean Speculative Fiction, Math Paper Press
"Captain Bells and the Sovereign State of Discordia" 2012 Short story The Steampowered Globe, AS¡FF / Two Trees
"Old Domes" 2013 Short story We See a Different Frontier: A Postcolonial Speculative Fiction Anthology, Futurefire.net Publishing
"Tiger Baby" 2013 Short story From the Belly of the Cat, Math Paper Press
"Storytelling for the Night Clerk" 2014 Short story Strange Horizons, 16 June 2014
"Harvestfruit" 2014 Short story Crossed Genres, July 2014
"Patterns of a Murmuration, in Billions of Data Points" 2014 Short story Clarkesworld, issue #96
"Mother's Day" 2014 Short story Lontar: The Journal of Southeast Asian Speculative Fiction, issue #3
"Cold Hands and the Smell of Salt" 2015 Short story Daily Science Fiction, Jan 2015
"A Sister's Weight in Stone" 2015 Short story Apex Magazine, May 2015
"Letter from an Artist to a Thousand Future Versions of Her Wife" 2015 Short story Lightspeed Magazine, issue #61
"RE (For CEO's Approval) Text for 10th Anniversary Exhibition for Operation Springclean" 2015 Short story Bahamut, issue #1
"A House of Anxious Spiders" 2015 Short story The Dark, Aug 2015
"Song of the Krakenmaid" 2015 Short story Lackington's, Fall 2015
"Temporary Saints" 2015 Short story Fireside Magazine, issue #28
"Secondhand Bodies" 2016 Short story Lightspeed Magazine, issue #68
"Her Majesty's Lamborghini and the Girl with the Fish Tank" 2016 Short story Lontar: The Journal of Southeast Asian Speculative Fiction, issue #6
"The Blood That Pulses in the Veins of One" 2016 Short story Uncanny Magazine, issue #10
"Transfers to Connecting Flights" 2016 Short story An Alphabet of Embers: An Anthology of Unclassifiables, Stone Bird Press
"Four and Twenty Blackbirds" 2016 Short story Lightspeed Magazine, issue #73
"Dismantling London" 2016 Short story Geeky Giving: A SFF Charity Anthology, CreateSpace
"The Beachings" 2016 Short story The Sockdolager, Fall 2016
"The Slow Ones" 2017 Short story GlitterShip, Winter 2017
"Auspicium Melioris Aevi" 2017 Short story Uncanny Magazine, issue #15
"Glass Lights" 2017 Short story The Djinn Falls in Love & Other Stories, Solaris
"Waiting on a Bright Moon" 2017 Novelette Tor.com
"A Game of Lost and Found" 2018 Short story Lackington's, Spring 2018 (co-authored with Mike Allen, Vajra Chandrasekera, Amal El-Mohtar, Natalia Theodoridou)
"Circus Girl, the Hunter, and Mirror Boy" 2019 Novelette Tor.com
"Bridge of Crows" 2019 unknown The Mythic Dream, Saga Press
"The Search for [Flight X]" 2020 Short story Avatars Inc., XPRIZE
"A Stick of Clay, in the Hands of God, Is Infinite Potential" 2020 Novelette Clarkesworld, issue #164
"The Exile" 2020 unknown The Book of Dragons, Harper Voyager

See also

References
  1. @itsneonyang (1 September 2020). "Signed the paperwork today which means I AM NOW! LEGALLY!! NEON!! Hence the new Twitter handle ☺️ Next up: making it OFFICIAL by changing state ID (💀) and all the banks, insurance, credit card etc (💀💀💀) Legal language is so fucking dramatic lmfao" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 1 September 2020 – via Twitter.
  2. "Announcing the 2017 Nebula Awards Nominees". Tor.com. 20 February 2018. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
  3. "2018/1943 Hugo Award Finalists Announced". theHugoAwards.org. 31 March 2018. Retrieved 11 May 2018.
  4. "2018 Hugo and Campbell Awards Winners". Locus Magazine. 19 August 2018. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  5. "2018 World Fantasy Awards Winners". Locus Magazine. 4 November 2018. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  6. Edit Team (7 March 2019). "31st Annual Lammy Finalists". Lambda Literary. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  7. "2020 British Fantasy Awards Winners". Locus Magazine. 22 February 2021. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  8. "Announcing The Kitschies' 2017 Shortlists". Tor.com. 19 March 2018. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  9. Matthews, Cate (15 October 2020). "The Black Tides of Heaven by Neon Yang". Time. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  10. Ho, Olivia (18 October 2020). "Singaporean author Neon Yang makes Time's list of The 100 Best Fantasy Books Of All Time". The Straits Times. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  11. "The Genesis of Misery". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  12. Bui, Ammi (12 August 2022). "The Genesis of Misery". Library Journal. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  13. "Best Science Fiction". Goodreads. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  14. "2023 Locus Awards Winners". Locus Magazine. 24 June 2023. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  15. "Jennings Wins 2023 Compton Crook Award". Locus Magazine. 10 April 2023. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  16. "About the Writer". Neon Yang. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
  17. Coleman, Christian A. (July 2018). "Interview: JY Yang". Lightspeed. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  18. Tor.com (12 January 2022). "A Space Opera Twist on Joan of Arc: Revealing The Genesis of Misery by Neon Yang". Tor.com. Retrieved 5 September 2022.
  19. Neon Yang at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
  20. "2018 Locus Awards Winners". Locus Magazine. 23 June 2018. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  21. "Ignyte Awards Winners". Locus Magazine. 18 October 2020. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  22. "2021 Locus Awards Top Ten Finalists". Locus Magazine. 1 May 2021. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  23. "J.Y. Yang's two novellas are like rojak, a surprisingly delicious blend of unexpected flavours". The Straits Times. 26 September 2017. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
  24. "The Black Tides of Heaven". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  25. McArdle, Megan M. (15 September 2017). "The Black Tides of Heaven". Library Journal. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  26. "The Red Threads of Fortune". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  27. "The Descent of Monsters". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  28. Chadwick, Kristi (15 June 2018). "The Descent of Monsters". Library Journal. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  29. "2019 Locus Awards Finalists". Locus Magazine. 7 May 2019. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  30. "The Ascent to Godhood". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  31. "2020 Locus Awards Winners". Locus Magazine. 27 June 2020. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  32. "Joan of Arc Meets Space Opera: Announcing a New SF Trilogy From Author Neon Yang". Tor.com. 28 September 2020. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  33. "Innumerable Voices: The Short Fiction of JY Yang". Tor.com. 29 July 2016. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
  34. Author's official website, visited 12/4/2021
  35. "2017 Otherwise Award". otherwiseaward.org. December 2016. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  36. "Bergin Wins 2017 Tiptree Award". Locus Magazine. 14 March 2018. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  37. "Announcing the Winner and Honorees of the 2017 James Tiptree Jr. Award". Tor.com. 14 March 2018. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  38. "2018 Hugo Awards". The Hugo Awards. 19 August 2018. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  39. "Ignyte Awards Winners". Locus Magazine. 18 October 2020. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  40. Lewis, L.D. (17 October 2020). "RESULTS: The 2020 Ignyte Awards". FIYAH Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  41. ""2021 Locus Award Winners". Locus Magazine. 26 June 2021. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  42. "2022 Lambda Literary Award Finalists Announced". Lambda Literary. 15 March 2022. Retrieved 5 July 2023.

Interviews
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