A stylized illustration with curling white lines and paintbrush strokes of cyan and purple shading. On the left is a person with curly hair and large open wings. Right of center, another person extends one hand, and that hand holds a cyan flame. Small moths flutter around the flame. Further right is a third person with antlers. On the far right are two crescent moons. The larger moon has a ring around it.

A stylized illustration with curling white lines and paintbrush strokes of cyan and purple shading. On the left is a person extending one hand, and that hand holds a cyan flame. Small moths flutter around the flame. Center is a person with antlers. On the right are two crescent moons. The larger moon has a ring around it.

Riley Neither

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

Fiction

Art

Conlangs

Recs

Newest Stories

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.

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.

Instagram: @riley.neither - See some of my artwork and occasional miscellaneous updates.

Goodreads: Riley Neither - Check out what I'm reading and reviewing, often with an eye toward trans representation in SFF.

I've also put up a separate website to serve as a combination art portfolio and craft shop: www.neitherwise.com

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."