A.J. Van Belle
Author
 |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
About
Alexandra (A. J.) Van Belle is the author of The Smoke of Rebirth (commercial YA) and co-author of The Samsara Solution (adult sci-fi mystery) with Danai Christopoulou and Anna Klapdor.
Alexandra's fiction has appeared in journals and anthologies from 2004 to the present. They've worked as a full-time editor in nonfiction publishing and higher education, served as YA acquiring editor at a small publisher, and taught undergraduate writing courses at Boston University. Currently, in addition to writing full time and nurturing new talent through two novel-writing mentorship programs, they are a professor of natural sciences. An ecologist and evolutionary geneticist with a Ph.D. in biology, they draw on their science background to inform the world-building details in their fiction.
Alexandra is represented by Lauren Bieker of FinePrint Literary Management.
The Smoke of Rebirth
Every class needs someone like Maren to stand up to bullies. Little does this class know Maren is so much more.
A terrified HS student. A girl who faked death to end bullying. A princess alive since the Bronze Age. And a stalker with a death wish.
They could save a group of teens from destroying themselves...if they don't destroy each other first.
Commercial YA with fantasy elements
85K words
On submission
In a near future where past lives are a scientifically proven fact, a disabled woman haunted by her former self, an unlikely murderer on a quest for justice, and a jaded investigator with a knack for dying must make peace with former incarnations before more innocent lives are lost, or risk Final Death—the kind you don’t come back from in any form.
Adult sci-fi mystery
100K words
On submission
The Samsara Solution
Everything you've lived can be used against you.
All Falls to Ruin
With the help of Cortinarius, an ancient forest spirit with dubious motives, grief-stricken dryad Sylvia takes on human form and enters a coastal Texas town to seek restitution for her sister, who was killed by a careless human.
THE LITTLE MERMAID x PAN’S LABYRINTH
Adult dark fantasy, 95K words
Will go on sub in early 2023
Short Fiction Highlights
"Harrow"
"A Billion Paper Stars"
"The Mist That Forms the Flesh"
