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Jeff VanderMeer Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Jeff VanderMeer
Photo Credit: Ditte Valente

Jeff VanderMeer

Jeff VanderMeer Biography

Called "the weird Thoreau" by the New Yorker, New York Times bestseller Jeff VanderMeer has been a published writer since age 14. His most recent fiction is the critically acclaimed novel BORNE, which has received raves from the New York Times Book Review, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and many more. Paramount Pictures has optioned BORNE for film.

VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy was one of the publishing events of 2014, the trilogy made more than thirty year's best lists, including Entertainment Weekly's top 10. Paramount Pictures has made a movie out of the first volume of the Southern Reach, Annihilation, released in 2018 and starring Tessa Thompson, Oscar Isaac, Gina Rodriguez, Natalie Portman, and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

His nonfiction appears in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, the Guardian, and the Atlantic.com. VanderMeer also wrote the world's first fully illustrated creative-writing guide, Wonderbook. With his wife, Ann VanderMeer, he has edited may iconic anthologies. He lives in Tallahassee, Florida, with two wonderful cats. His hobbies include hiking, reading, and bird watching.

Jeff VanderMeer's website

This bio was last updated on 10/15/2024. In a perfect world, we would like to keep all of BookBrowse's biographies up to date, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's simply impossible to do. So, if the date of this bio is not recent, you may wish to do an internet search for a more current source, such as the author's website or social media presence. If you are the author or publisher and would like us to update this biography, send the complete text and we will replace the old with the new.

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Interview

In a conversation with Kirkus Review's Mark Athitakis the author discusses the fourth book in his Southern Reach series, Absolution.

Were you surprised that you wanted to pursue a fourth book in the series?

I really didn't plan to write another [Southern Reach] book, but there were these questions that had their hooks in my subconscious. I really wanted to know more about what the Séance & Science Brigade had been up to before Area X came down the border. I also had this weird vision of a scientific expedition to the Forgotten Coast, 20 years before Area X occurred, which had somehow created a condition for, or had an influence over, what happened later. And that was very powerful. All of this kind of lived beneath the surface of my mind.

What was the writing process itself like?

Last year, the floodgates broke open. For six months, I really wrote in a fever dream, which is very much like how I wrote Annihilation. Morning, noon, and night, basically. Writers don't like to talk about this phase because it sounds…maybe too surreal. But you're literally in an ecstatic trance—you're basically having visions. So by year's end, the novel was complete. It was the single greatest writing jag of my entire life, and so instinctual that I don't remember large portions of it. I'm still figuring out how it happened.

Do actual dreams play a role in helping you ...

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Books by this Author

Books by Jeff VanderMeer at BookBrowse
Absolution jacket Hummingbird Salamander jacket Borne jacket Authority jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Jeff VanderMeer but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Lily Brooks-Dalton

    Lily Brooks-Dalton

    Lily Brooks-Dalton is the author of The Light Pirate, a #1 Indie Next pick for December 2022, a Good Morning America Book Club selection, one of NPR's "Books We Love," and a New York Times Editors' Pick. She is also the ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Absolution

    Try:
    The Light Pirate
    by Lily Brooks-Dalton

  • Liliana Colanzi

    Liliana Colanzi

    Liliana Colanzi was born in Santa Cruz in Bolivia and has published three collections of short stories. She teaches Latin American literature at Cornell University. Colanzi is the founder of Dum Dum publishing house in ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Absolution

    Try:
    You Glow in the Dark
    by Liliana Colanzi

We recommend 12 similar authors


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BookBrowse Book Club

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