Victor LaValle

1 universe Last reviewed 2026-08-29

Victor LaValle was born February 3, 1972, in New York City and raised in Queens by his mother, an immigrant from Uganda. He earned a bachelor's degree in English from Cornell University and an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University, where he now serves as an associate professor at the School of the Arts. Writing primarily in speculative fiction and horror since 1999, LaValle has also contributed essays and reviews to publications including The Washington Post and Essence magazine. His major novels include Big Machine (2009), The Devil in Silver (2012), The Changeling (2017), and Lone Women (2023), often blending social realism with horror and fantastical elements to explore race, mental illness, and family trauma in America. He is particularly acclaimed for The Ballad of Black Tom (2016), a novella that retells H. P. Lovecraft's overtly racist short story "The Horror at Red Hook" from the perspective of a Black protagonist, directly confronting Lovecraft's legacy of bigotry within the horror genre. LaValle has also created graphic novels, including Destroyer (2017), a modern reimagining of the Frankenstein myth. His numerous honors include the Shirley Jackson Award for both Big Machine (2009) and The Ballad of Black Tom (2016), and the World Fantasy, Locus, and British Fantasy Awards for The Changeling (2018), along with fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and United States Artists, establishing him as one of the most decorated contemporary voices working at the intersection of literary and speculative fiction.

Universe(s)

Books

• The Changeling (2017) · The Changeling Core Canon

Aggregate across all universes

• Total Core Canon books across all universes: 1 book
• Award recognitions across all universes: 4 (4 won)

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