Ian Young

Ian Young (born January 5, 1945) is an English-Canadian poet, editor, literary critic, and historian. While a student at the University of Toronto, he was a founding member of the University of Toronto Homophile Association, the first post-Stonewall gay organization in Canada. He founded Canada's first gay publishing company, Catalyst Press, in 1970, printing over thirty works of poetry and fiction by Canadian, British, and American writers until the press ceased operation in 1980. His work has appeared in Canadian Notes & Queries, The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide, Rites and Continuum, as well as in more than fifty anthologies. He was a regular columnist for The Body Politic from 1975 to 1985 and for Torso between 1991 and 2008.

Young is best known for his work as editor of the anthology The Gay Muse and the bibliography The Male Homosexual in Literature. He edited The Male Muse: A Gay Anthology, the first English-language anthology of poetry with gay male themes. In 1974, a shipment of The Male Muse was seized and burned by British customs officials.

He was interested in ceremonial magic during the 1980s and was a founding member of the Hermetic Order of the Silver Sword.

His recent book, Encounters with Authors (2013), featured historical and critical essays on the work of three noted Canadian LGBT writers, Scott Symons, Robin Hardy and Norman Elder.