Bryan Washington


Bryan Washington is an American writer from Houston. He published his debut short story collection, Lot, in 2019 and a novel, Memorial, in 2020.
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Early life and education

Washington was born 1993 in Kentucky; his family moved to Katy, Texas, 30 miles west of Houston, when he was 3 years old. He knew he was gay at a young age but did not formally come out, fearing stigmatization. He graduated from James E. Taylor High School in Katy in 2011.
Washington graduated from the University of Houston with a BA in English, and continued his education at the University of New Orleans. There he earned a Master of Fine Arts.

Career

Washington's first book was Lot, a series of interconnected short stories set in Houston, and published in 2019 by Riverhead. The book centers in part on Nicolás, a young man of mixed African American and Latino American descent who works in his family's restaurant while coming to terms with his sexuality. The book won the 2019 Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, the 2020 Dylan Thomas Prize, and the 2020 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction.
Washington's debut novel, Memorial, was published in 2020. In addition to being longlisted for the Aspen Words Literary Prize, the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, Memorial was selected as a New York Times Notable Book. Prior to publication, A24 purchased the rights to adapt the novel for television, with Washington to write the screenplay adaptation.
His second novel Family Meal was shortlisted for the 2024 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction.
Washington lectures in English at Rice University. In July 2020, he was made George Guion Williams Writer in Residence and Scholar in Residence for Racial Justice.

Awards

Books

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Fiction and essays

  • Washington, Bryan. "Last Coffeehouse on Travis". Fiction. The New Yorker. Sep. 16, 2024.
  • Washington, Bryan. "Hatagaya Lore". Fiction. The New Yorker. March 23, 2025.
  • Washington, Bryan. "Voyagers". Fiction. The New Yorker. Sept. 15, 2025.