Distinctly rooted in the Pacific Northwest, Young's characters make their marks and take their missteps on the beaches, in the mountains and neighbourhoods in and around Vancouver, BC.

A couple spontaneously invite their new neighbours to dinner and the night takes a menacing turn. A widow seeks solace and revenge on the mountain bike trails behind her home. And an overwhelmed single mother moves into a housing cooperative the same summer two teenage boys are on the run, wanted for murder.

The women in these stories crave connection but often get in their own way of achieving it. They are stubborn, jealous, and stuck. They are misunderstood — and misunderstand — and lonely. They are also perceptive and empathetic.

In prose that sparks and spits, by turns poetic and plain, Young writes assuredly of loneliness and connection, love and loss, fear and fortitude, and perhaps most evocatively of the labyrinthine inner lives of women and girls. (From House of Anansi Press)

Welcome to the Neighbourhood is available in May 2025.

Clea Young is a writer based in B.C. Her writing has been featured in publications such as the 2025 Best Canadian Stories and The Journey Prize Stories, where her stories have been included three times and been shortlisted for the award twice. Her debut story collection, Teardown, was published in 2016 by Freehand Books. She made the 2012 CBC Short Story Prize shortlist, and the 2019 CBC Short Story Prize longlist.Young holds an MFA from the University of British Columbia.