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Victor LaValle (born February 3, 1972) is an American author. He is the author of a short-story collection, Slapboxing with Jesus, and five novels, The Ecstatic, Big Machine, The Devil in Silver, The Changeling, and Lone Women. His fantasy-Horror fiction novella The Ballad of Black Tom won the 2016 Shirley Jackson Award for best novella. 2016 Shirley Jackson Awards, retrieved October 7, 2017 LaValle writes fiction primarily, though he has also written essays and book reviews for GQ, Essence Magazine, The Fader, and The Washington Post, among other publications.
The Ecstatic was published in 2002 by Crown Publishing Group. The novel continues the story of Anthony James, a character from LaValle's collection of stories. Anthony is a morbidly obese college dropout who may also be experiencing the first signs of schizophrenia. The novel follows the exploits of his family, who are trying their best to save Anthony, but who might be in need of a little saving themselves. The subject matter is dark, and even shocking, but a gallows humor runs throughout. This book received even wider critical acclaim, earning comparisons to writers such as Ken Kesey, Chester Himes, and John Kennedy Toole. In 2003 the novel was a finalist for both the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. It became a favorite novel for rapper Mos Def, who later titled The Ecstatic after it.
Big Machine was published in 2009 by Spiegel & Grau. The novel tells the story of Ricky Rice, an ex-junkie survivor of a suicide cult whose life is changed when a mysterious letter arrives summoning him to a remote compound in Vermont. The novel was widely praised upon its release, making many national top ten lists. It also won the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel in 2009, as well as the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence and an American Book Award in 2010.
The Devil in Silver, published by Spiegel & Grau in August 21, 2012, is the story of Pepper, a sane man sent for observation to a mental hospital. There he encounters a monster known as the Devil roaming the nighttime halls. He teams up with other patients to fight the mental confusion of the drugs he is required to take, the staff, and the monster.
The Ballad of Black Tom, a novella, was published by Tor Books on February 16, 2016. It is a retelling of the H. P. Lovecraft story "The Horror at Red Hook" from the point of view of a young Black man living in Harlem with a reference to the Nation of Gods and Earths.
The Changeling was published in 2017 by Spiegel & Grau and received critical acclaim. It was selected as one of 2017's ten best books by New York Public Library and won a 2018 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, the 2018 Locus Award for Horror Novel, and the 2018 British Fantasy Award for Horror Novel.
Destroyer, a graphic novel published in 2017 by Boom! Studios, is a modern retelling of Frankenstein (1818). The story follows an African-American descendant of Dr. Frankenstein, her only son who was killed in a police encounter, and the monster from the original novel who has long given up on peace.
Lone Women, a novel published in 2023 by Random House, is written in the western genre with Horror fiction, and set in 1915 Montana. The story follows protagonist Adelaide Henry, a single woman who, along with a heavy trunk, leaves her family farm in California to establish a homestead in Montana.
| + !Year !Nominee !Award !Category !Result !Ref | ||||
| Hurston/Wright Legacy Award | Fiction | |||
| Ernest J. Gaines Award | — | Crowder, Courtney. "LaValle's 'Big Machine' wins Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence", The Chicago Tribune, Chicago, November 17, 2010. | ||
| Shirley Jackson Award | Novella | |||
| Hugo Award | Novella | |||
| Locus Award | Novella | |||
| Nebula Award | Novella | |||
| Theodore Sturgeon Award | — | |||
| World Fantasy Award | Novella | |||
| The Changeling | Dragon Awards | Horror Novel | ||
| Shirley Jackson Award | Novel | |||
| Locus Award | Horror Novel | |||
| Mythopoeic Awards | Adult Novel | |||
| World Fantasy Award | Novel | |||
| Locus Award | Anthology | |||
| "Up from Slavery" | Bram Stoker Award | Short Fiction |
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