Today we’d like to introduce you to John Young.
Hi John, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I grew up beyond the suburbs of Indianapolis, in a corner of one of my grandfather’s fields. I went off to study English and theater at Indiana University. That’s when I first dreamed of writing fiction. After IU, I taught English and theater for a couple of years and switched into advertising becoming a copywriter and creative director, first in Indianapolis, then in the Boston area for 20 years. While in Boston, I studied creative writing and got an MFA from Emerson College.
I was one of the first creatives in digital advertising, defining how advertising would work on the Web, creating the first banner ads, and building early websites for companies like IBM, Mobile Oil, American Express, and others.
That’s how I ended up in Cincinnati. In 2005, Bridge Worldwide, a digital ad agency, offered me a position as a partner and their first Executive Creative Director. When I joined, we had about 100 people, and when I left five and a half years later, we had nearly 400. And we sold the agency to WPP, the multi-national agency holding company out of London.
During those years, I worked a lot of hours, and when I sat down at the computer to write fiction, it felt like more work. But after we sold the agency, I turned back to creative writing.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Is it ever a smooth road for an artist? My biggest obstacle—not my only one, but the biggest—was overcoming my past. I grew up in a working-class family and swore when I had a family, they wouldn’t worry about a roof over their heads or food on the table. So, career and financial security took priority, sidelining my fiction. I used my artistic talent to make a living.
I don’t regret that choice. It’s what I had to do.
But I kept the dream and returned to fiction writing.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
I write literary fiction, and I’ve published three books, two novels, and a collection of stories. I’m proud of that, but there’s a lot more I want to write. I’m working on another novel now, and I’m stewing over future novel ideas.
My new novel: Getting Huge, was published this year (2023) by Guernica Editions, a leading independent publisher in Canada. It’s an often-comic novel about 7-foot-tall John Crackstone, who becomes obsessed with growing the world’s largest pumpkin. What matters is why. Crackstone is cracking under the pressure of working with the wrong people in the wrong place and failing to meet goals they set for him. He aches for success in this life, so he latches onto giant pumpkins, of course.
Aileen Grever, a long-time editor in New York, said of Getting Huge: “John Young writes with the humor of David Sedaris and the insight and humanity of John Updike.”
My first novel When the Coin Is in the Air was published by Golden Antelope Press in 2019. It’s a coming-of-age story about a young man’s search for self-worth while in conflict with an older brother and an abusive father.
James Carrol, National Book Award winner, said of it: “This novel makes its way from a staggering opening to a quiet self-acceptance that leaves the reader grateful.”
Golden Antelope also published Fire in the Field & Other Stories in 2021. I wrote several of these 16 stories while a freelance writer in the Boston area.
Patricia Averbach, the Ohio author of Resurrecting Rain, wrote: “An elegant, wise, witty collection that deserves a place among the best work being produced today. Young is a writer who knows his craft and deserves the attention of a wide audience.”
We’d love to hear about what you think about risk-taking.
Risk-taking—or betting on yourself, as some say—has worked out for me most of the time. But not always. My first professional risk came at age 23 when I left teaching to become a freelance copywriter.
After a few years, I left Indianapolis to start over in the Boston area with my future wife. I turned down job offers to build a freelance career in Massachusetts so I could also write fiction (at least some of the time). In Boston, I worked with all kinds of interesting clients from Fortune 500s to innovative startups.
Those experiences lead to taking another risk and returning to the Midwest, to the Cincinnati agency as I mentioned. After we sold the agency, I launched an environmental startup as co-founder and CEO. But after struggles with my former partner, I sold my shares to him and new investors. Lots of life lessons there, both positive and negative—but lessons either way.
And I took the risk of leaving business to resume the writing dream first hatched as a freshman at Indiana University—and I’m a published author for it. Still, with each fiction project, I try new challenges—new risks—and I hope to reach more readers with each book.
So, my take on risk is to embrace it, making calculated risks leads to a full life.
Contact Info:
- Website: johnyoungwriter.com
- Instagram: JohnYoung_writer
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JohnYoungWriter
Image Credits
Michael Wilson
Nick Young
