✍️ Local Author Spotlight: Brian Lee Young

Photo Courtesy of Author

Quick Reference

💻 Author Hub: brianleeyoung.com  

📚 Featured Books: Healer of the Water Monster, Heroes of the Water Monster, & Shards of Silence  

📚 Focus Genres: Middle-Grade Contemporary Fantasy, Young Adult Fiction, & Indigenous Lore

📍 Regional Connection: Enrolled Member of the Navajo Nation / Academic Speaker & Cultural Consultant

About the Author

Brian Lee Young is an award-winning author, filmmaker, and enrolled member of the Navajo Nation. Growing up on the Navajo reservation in Arizona, Brian developed a deep reverence for traditional storytelling, language, and culture. He went on to earn a BA in Film Studies from Yale University and an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University.  

Brian’s phenomenal talent bridges multiple creative mediums. He has worked on prominent short films—including Tsídii Nááts'íílid (Rainbow Bird) and the New York Times short documentary series A Conversation on Race with Native Americans—and has served as a cultural consultant on major graphic novel projects. Today, his powerful literary voice is celebrated nationwide for centering vibrant, contemporary Native heroes. His highly acclaimed debut novel earned him the prestigious American Indian Youth Literature Award for Best Middle Grade Book.  

🏛️ Exploring His Worlds & Contemporary Realism

Brian’s writing beautifully weaves sacred Navajo folklore, traditional healing blessing songs, and Creation stories with intense, grounded modern emotional realities:  

• The Water Monster Series (Middle-Grade Fantasy):  

  • Healer of the Water Monster (2021): This brilliant debut introduces Nathan, a seemingly ordinary Diné boy spending a summer without electricity or running water at his grandmother’s mobile home on the reservation. When Nathan gets lost in the desert and discovers an ailing Holy Being—a genuine Water Monster—he must summon immense bravery to save his new friend while simultaneously helping his uncle heal from the real-world trauma of addiction.  

  • Heroes of the Water Monster (2023): In this riveting companion novel, Nathan is joined by a new stepbrother, Edward, who must step up as the next guardian of a young water monster. Together, they face an ancient, monstrous Enemy from the legendary Hero Twins stories that threatens the water supply of the entire Navajo Nation.  

• Shards of Silence (Young Adult Fiction - Released May 2026): Moving into powerful YA contemporary fiction, this deeply moving coming-of-age story bridges a stark generational divide. It follows Derrick, a Navajo teen handling the immense pressures and cultural alienation of a scholarship at an elite East Coast boarding school. When his great-grandmother's health begins to fade back home, Derrick sets out to shatter a lifetime of generational silence, untangling her buried memories of the historical federal Native boarding school system.  

  
  

✒️ Connect with Brian

An incredible advocate for indigenous visibility and community healing, Brian's work serves as a beautiful window into his culture and a tool for bridging community gaps.  

• 🌐 Official Website: brianleeyoung.com  

• 📣 Representation: Featured via Authors Unbound for educational events, workshops, and panel speaking.