About Bryan
Bryan Young (he/they) works across many different media. His work as a writer and producer has been called "filmmaking gold" by The New York Times. He's also published comic books with Slave Labor Graphics and Image Comics. He's been a regular contributor for the Huffington Post, StarWars.com, Star Wars Insider magazine, SYFY, /Film, and was the founder and editor in chief of the geek news and review site Big Shiny Robot! In 2014, he wrote the critically acclaimed history book, A Children’s Illustrated History of Presidential Assassination. He co-authored Robotech: The Macross Saga RPG and has written five books in the BattleTech Universe: Honor's Gauntlet, A Question of Survival, Fox Tales, Without Question, and the forthcoming VoidBreaker. His latest non-fiction tie-in book, The Big Bang Theory Book of Lists is a #1 Bestseller on Amazon. His work has won two Diamond Quill awards and in 2023 he was named Writer of the Year by the League of Utah Writers. He teaches writing for Writer’s Digest, Script Magazine, and at the University of Utah. Follow him across social media @swankmotron or visit swankmotron.com.
Bryan Young (he/they) is an award-winning podcaster, journalist, filmmaker, and author. As a journalist, he’s written regularly for StarWars.Com, Syfy, /Film, and HowStuffWorks, and many more. He's also the founding editor and former editor-in-chief of the geek news site Big Shiny Robot!
As a filmmaker, he's written and directed features, short films, commercials, and any other sort of video you can imagine. Most notably, he produced two award-winning documentary feature films, This Divided State (2005) and Killer at Large (2008), which he also co-wrote. His first feature film (co-written and co-directed with Elias Pate) was called Missy (2001) and took place entirely inside a spaceship they built in his mom’s backyard. His most recent short film, 3 1/2 Stars, has won awards including Best Writing. He’s also won a Telly Award.
As an author, he's written a plethora of fiction and non-fiction. His first published work was co-scripting the comic book Pirate Club for Slave Labor Graphics and a Gamma Rae story for Image Comics.
Shortly thereafter, he self-published his first novel, the bestselling and critically acclaimed comedy Lost at the Con, about a drunken political journalist assigned to cover a sci-fi convention against his will.
After that, he released three novels with Silence in the Library publishing: the sci-fi pulp adventure Operation Montauk, the sci-fi western The Serpent's Head, and a steampunk tale of World War I called The Aeronaut. They also published his non-fiction book A Children's Illustrated History of Presidential Assassination.
In 2019, he wrote all the fiction for the officially licensed Robotech: The Macross Saga Roleplaying Game, including two short stories starring classic characters. The sequel Robotech: Homefront was released in 2023 and he contributed significantly to the book, as well as two more short stories to the Robotech canon.
His first foray into the BattleTech universe, Honor’s Gauntlet kicked off a whole new era of fiction in that beloved franchise. It won the League of Utah Writers’ Diamond Quill for 2021, reserved for the best book of the year written by a Utah Writer.
His next novel in the BattleTech universe, A Question of Survival, came out to rave reviews. New York Times Bestselling author Michael A. Stackpole said, “Bryan Young is one of the best writers in BattleTech today, and his A Question of Survival is an exciting and vital addition to the canon."
In 2023, his novella BattleTech: Ghostbird, which first appeared in the pages of the official BattleTech magazine Shrapnel, won Bryan his second Diamond Quill award.
2024 will see the release of two more BattleTech novels from Bryan, starting with the Q1 release Without Question and the Q3 release VoidBreaker.
His latest non-fiction release, The Big Bang Theory Book of Lists, is an Amazon Bestseller.
He’s written officially in the Robotech, BattleTech, Star Wars, Shadowrun, and Doctor Who universes.
As a podcaster, he hosts two shows. Full of Sith is one of the highest-rated podcasts covering the world of Star Wars in fandom and Fauxthentic History takes the fictional history of our favorite geeky stories and pretends it's real.
He teaches writing at conferences across the country and at the University of Utah in their Continuing Education Department. He teaches courses for Writer’s Digest’s Screenwriter’s University as well.
He’s also a past President of the League of Utah Writers, Utah’s oldest non-profit organization devoted to the writing community. He’s currently the president of the Salt City Genre Writers chapter of the League of Utah Writers. In 2023, the League named Bryan Writer of the Year for his achievements in publishing and his service to the writing community.
He is an active member of SFWA (The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America), HWA (The Horror Writers Association), and IAMTW (International Association of Media Tie-In Writers).
You can subscribe to his monthly short stories on Patreon.
Follow him on Twitter @swankmotron or visit www.swankmotron.com.
Bryan is represented by Katherine Odom-Tomchin at Folio Literary Management and can be reached for inquiries.
BOOKS
BOOKS
Novellas, Short Stories, & More
Upcoming Appearances And Workshops
2024
March 2 - Novel Writing Workshop - University of Utah (In-Person, Open to all)
March 7 - 21 Days to Your Novel Outline and Synopsis - Writer’s Digest (online)
March 9 - Short Story Writing Workshop - University of Utah (In-Person, Open to all)
March 20-24 - AdeptiCon (In-Person)
April 20 - League of Utah Writers Pre-Quill Conference (Hybrid)
April 26-28 - Pikes Peak Writers Conference - (In-Person)
May 9-11 - Storymakers Conference - (Hybrid)
June 11 - Choosing the Right Point of View - University of Utah (In-Person, Open to all)
June 25 - Sci-Fi and Fantasy Workshop - University of Utah (In-Person, Open to all)
July 16 - Writing Great Dialogue - University of Utah (In-Person, Open to all)
July 30 - Beating Writers Block - University of Utah (In-Person, Open to all)
August 1-4 - Gen Con - (In-person)
August 8-11 - League of Utah Writers Quills Conference (Hybrid)
August 29-September 2 - Dragon Con (In-person)
PAST APPEARANCES
Star Wars Celebration; Salt Lake Comic-Con; San Diego Comic-Con; League of Utah Writers Spring Conference; Gen Con; League of Utah Writers Quills Conference; Dragon Con; Central Coast Writer’s Conference; Phoenix Comic-Con; GMX (Tennessee Geek Media Expo); Salt Lake FanX; CONduit; Life, The Universe, and Everything; Origins Game Fair; League of Utah Writers Pre-Quill conference; Writer’s Digest University; Script Univeristy; Arizona State University Virginia Piper Creative Writing Center Distinguished Writer Series; StokerCon; Teen Author Bootcamp, and more.