I have been a storyteller my whole life.

My purpose of ease and flow first came to me through writing. I became a writer when I was 12, when a seventh-grade free-writing assignment never really stopped. Now, I write literary memoir, personal essay, and short fiction, shining light on the truth through three different genres.

My work generally explores complex family dynamics, the messy intersection of race and class in upwardly mobile Black families, and liberation and freedom. My writing has been nominated for Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize.

I am currently Executive Editor and Insight (nonfiction) Editor at The Offing, and I previously served as Senior Fiction Editor for The Rumpus and Assistant Flash Editor for Hippocampus. I am an alumna of many renowned writing workshops, including VONA/Voices, the VQR Writers Conference, Yale Writer’s Workshop, the Community of Writers, Bread Loaf Writers Conference, Tin House Winter Workshop, and the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop. I have also attended residencies at the Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity and The Writer’s Colony at Dairy Hollow.

My identity as a writer influences all the work I do, from consulting private equity firms to teaching Pilates. Story is the core of all of us; I love bringing it out in the most unexpected ways.

Click below to read some samples of my work, and view my whole literary portfolio at www.vonettayoung.com.