A stylized illustration with a medley of speculative elements that make reference to some of Riley Neither's fiction. From right to left: a winged person, a person holding out one hand with cyan fire, a person with antlers, and a pair of planets, one with a ring around it. Small moths flutter around throughout. The style is thick, curling white lines shaded with paintbrush strokes in cyan and plum purple. A stylized illustration with a medley of speculative elements that make reference to some of Riley Neither's fiction. From right to left: a person holding out one hand with cyan fire, a person with antlers, and a pair of planets, one with a ring around it. Small moths flutter around throughout. The style is thick, curling white lines shaded with paintbrush strokes in cyan and plum purple.

Riley Neither

Writer of speculative fiction that's often queer, sometimes political, and always full of wonder.

a stylized drawing of a pen writing that links to the Fiction page

Fiction

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Art

a stylized drawing of a speech bubble that links to the Conlangs page

Conlangs

a stylized drawing of a book that links to the Recs page

Recs

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Thoughts

Newest Stories

a rough sketch of a young person walking with a bicycle over a colorful abstract background

Something Lost

Abyss & Apex just published my short story Something Lost, a quick little fantasy tale about family.

About

I'm non-binary, asexual, neurodivergent, and anti-fascist. I'm also a white settler in the U.S. and have lived most of my life on Gayogo̱hó:nǫˀ (Cayuga) and Umonhon (Omaha) & Otoe-Missouria land. I say so because these things influence my writing. I believe in the value of representation for the disempowered, and I believe in the power of fiction to move people and ultimately move societies. So I tend to write stories with a lot of queer, PoC, neurodiverse characters, exploring themes of identity and family, survival and recovery, resistance, justice, and self-determination. And I like to wrap it all together with magic and majesty, physics and futures, with that speculative sense of wonder and vastness that reminds us we're all part of something bigger than ourselves.

a stylized portrait of Riley Neither, an androgynous white person with long hair and glasses

After earning a PhD in linguistics, I took up copy editing for an educational non-profit, and I recently joined that non-profit's research team. When I'm not writing queer fantasy and sci-fi or occasionally venturing into other genres, I also make art and conlangs (constructed languages), read books, ride bikes, and sing in a queer chorus.

Find me around

My particular neurodivergences make social media difficult for me, but I try to check in there periodically. A better way to reach me is by email, riley.neither@gmail.com.

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Instagram: @riley.neither - See some of my artwork and occasional miscellaneous updates.
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Goodreads: Riley Neither - Check out what I'm reading and reviewing, often with an eye toward trans representation in SFF.

I've also made a separate website to serve as a combination art portfolio and craft shop: Neitherwise.

Pronouns & pronunciations

Gender-neutral pronouns, please. I'll accept most any (other than "it"), so if there's a set you're already familiar with (like singular "they"), feel free to use those for me. All else being equal, though, I prefer ze/zim/zer, and so do some of my characters. They work like this:

ze ~ she/he/they Ze used to play flute.
zim ~ her/him/them You might still catch zim at it now and then.
zer ~ her/his/their Zer flute is old and tarnished.
zers ~ hers/his/theirs This flute is too shiny to be zers.
zimself ~ herself/himself/themself Ze tries not to take zimself too seriously.

(If your screen is too narrow for this table, it scrolls horizontally. So do other tables throughout the site.)

As for the name, I pronounce Neither with the first vowel like "eye," not like "see."

© Riley Neither