Writing VanderMeer began writing in the late 1980s while still in high school and quickly became a prolific contributor to small-press magazines. During this time VanderMeer wrote a number of
horror and
fantasy short stories, some of which were collected in his 1989 self-published book
The Book of Frog and in the 1996 collection
The Book of Lost Places. In 2000, his novella
The Transformation of Martin Lake won the
World Fantasy Award. VanderMeer has also worked in other media, including on a movie based on his novel
Shriek that featured an original soundtrack by rock band
The Church. The band
Murder By Death likewise recorded a soundtrack for
Finch, which was released alongside a limited edition of the book. VanderMeer also wrote a
Predator tie-in novel for
Dark Horse Comics called
Predator: South China Seas and worked with animator
Joel Veitch on a Play Station Europe animation of his story "A New Face in Hell".
The Southern Reach Series In 2014,
Farrar, Straus and Giroux published VanderMeer's
Southern Reach Series, consisting of the novels
Annihilation, Authority, and
Acceptance. The story focuses on a secret agency that manages expeditions into a location known as Area X. The area is an uninhabited and abandoned part of the United States that nature has begun to reclaim after a mysterious world-changing event. VanderMeer has said that the main inspiration for Area X and the series was his hike through
St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge.
The Other Side of the Mountain by
Michel Bernanos is among the books VanderMeer has cited as also having had an influence. The strategy helped the second and third books reach the
New York Times Bestseller list, and established VanderMeer as "one of the most forward-thinking authors of the decade." The series ended up being highly honored, with
Annihilation winning the
Nebula and the 2016
Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis.
Annihilation was also adapted into
a film of the same name by writer-director
Alex Garland.
Tessa Thompson,
Jennifer Jason Leigh, and
Oscar Isaac.
Later writing In 2017 VanderMeer released
Borne, a "biotech apocalypse" novel about a scavenger named Rachel trying to survive both a city "plunged into a primordial realm of myth, fable, and fairy tale" In August 2017 VanderMeer released the novella
The Strange Bird: A Borne Story. The stand-alone story is set in the same world as
Borne but featuring different characters.
Dead Astronauts, a stand-alone short novel set in the Borne universe, was released on December 3, 2019. A stand-alone novel,
Hummingbird Salamander, was published on April 6, 2021.
Literary criticism and editing VanderMeer is a frequent writer of critical literary reviews and essays, which have appeared in numerous publications including
The Atlantic, The Washington Post Book World,
Publishers Weekly, and other places. For a number of years he was a regular columnist for the Amazon book-culture blog and has served as a judge for the
Eisner Awards, among others. He has been a guest speaker at such diverse events as the
Brisbane Writers Festival,
Finncon in Helsinki, and the
American Library Association annual conference. In 2019, VanderMeer was a judge for the
National Book Award for Fiction. VanderMeer has also edited a number of anthologies. He won a 2003
World Fantasy Award for
Leviathan, Volume Three, a collection of genre-bending stories he edited with
Forrest Aguirre. He and Mark Roberts were also finalists for the same award the next year for the anthology
The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases. Most of his recent anthologies have been collaborations with his wife,
Ann VanderMeer, the Hugo-award-winning former editor of
Weird Tales. These anthologies include
The New Weird, a collection of stories from New Weird authors;
Last Drink Bird Head, a charity anthology benefiting literacy;
The Weird, a
World Fantasy Award winning collection of weird fiction; ''
Time Traveler's Almanac, an anthology of time-travel fiction; Fast Ships, Black Sails
, a pirate fiction anthology; and the Locus Award winning The Big Book of Science Fiction
. The press is currently an imprint of Wyrm Publishing. One of the Ministry'
s publications, The Troika'' by
Stepan Chapman, won the
Philip K. Dick Award in 1997.
Teaching VanderMeer has been involved in teaching creative writing. One of the projects he is involved with is Shared Worlds, an annual two-week program that aims to teach creative writing to teenagers. VanderMeer has also taught at the
Clarion Workshop and at
Trinity Prep School. In addition to his teaching, VanderMeer has also written guides to creative writing such as
Wonderbook, which won a BSFA Award, a Locus Award, and was nominated for a Hugo and World Fantasy Award.
Critical reputation VanderMeer has been called "one of the most remarkable practitioners of the literary fantastic in America today," and "lyrical and harrowing," with his mixing of genres producing "something unique and unsettling." His writing has been compared in editorials with the works of
Jorge Luis Borges,
Franz Kafka, and
Henry David Thoreau. == Personal life ==