Van Newell has been awarded the Hackney Award, the Alabama Writers Conclave Award, and a Fellowship from the United States Department of Education America Reads Program. He has also been short-listed for a Pushcart Prize, a Humanitas Fellowship, the SideWrite Prize, and the Lascaux Prize. His writing has been published in The Raven's Perch, Modern Southern Folklore, The Lascaux Review, Medium.com, Ala-Lit.com, The New Guard, and Aura, among others. He currently teaches in the Department of English at The University of Alabama.