RAY NAYLER
  • ABOUT
  • Better Dreaming
  • 2020 Award Qualifying Stories
  • Bio and Bibliography
  • Reviews and Interviews
  • STORIES ONLINE
    • SF: The Disintegration Loops
    • SF: Mutability
    • SF: Incident at San Juan Bautista
    • SF: A Threnody For Hazan
    • SF: Do Not Forget Me
    • Audio: The Death of Fire Station 10
    • Audio: Beyond the High Altar
    • Audio: The Ocean Between the Leaves (SF)
    • Audio: Fire in the Bone (SF)
    • Slipstream: The Idiot Birds
    • Noir: Catch
    • Noir: Pretty For Baby
  • ABOUT
  • Better Dreaming
  • 2020 Award Qualifying Stories
  • Bio and Bibliography
  • Reviews and Interviews
  • STORIES ONLINE
    • SF: The Disintegration Loops
    • SF: Mutability
    • SF: Incident at San Juan Bautista
    • SF: A Threnody For Hazan
    • SF: Do Not Forget Me
    • Audio: The Death of Fire Station 10
    • Audio: Beyond the High Altar
    • Audio: The Ocean Between the Leaves (SF)
    • Audio: Fire in the Bone (SF)
    • Slipstream: The Idiot Birds
    • Noir: Catch
    • Noir: Pretty For Baby
"One of the up-and-coming masters of SF short fiction" -- Locus Online 
CURRENT PUBLICATIONS
"A Rocket for Dimitrios" in Asimov's January/February 2021 (read the prequel, "The Disintegration Loops" here)
​"Evrim's Children" in 
Dark Matter Magazine January 2021
"In the Petrified Forest" in 
Cobalt  December 2020
​"The Ocean Between The Leaves" in The Year's Best Science Fiction, Volume 5 
"Outside of Omaha" in Nightmare  September 2020
​"Architecture" (short story) in 
Queen's Review  Fall 2020
"Analog" (poem) in 
California Quarterly  ​Fall 2020
"Fire in the Bone" in 
XB-1 (Czech language) September 2020
"The Swallows of the Storm" in Lightspeed July 2020
"Father" in Asimov's  July/August 2020​
"Eyes of the Forest" in XB-1 (Czech Language) August 2020
"The Ocean Between The Leaves" in The Year's Top Hard Science Fiction Stories  June 2020
"Albedo Season" in Clarkesworld  May 2020
"Eyes of the Forest" in 
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction May/June 2020
"Return to the Red Castle" in 
Asimov's March/April 2020
UPCOMING PUBLICATIONS
"The Painted Room" (poem) in the Raintown Review 2020
"The Death of Fire Station 10" in The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2020
"The Ocean Between the Leaves" in The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2020
"The Shadow of His
 Wings" in Analog  March/April 2021
"
Año Nuevo" in Asimov's 2021
"Delinquencies: Five Poems from the Sonnet Sequence Subrevisions" in Poetry Pacific  May 2021
"After the Matinee" in The Briar Cliff Review ​ 2021
"The Ocean Between the Leaves" in Lightspeed  2021
"The Telling of a Dream" and "Past the Trains" in Modern Poetry Quarterly Review 2021
Ray Nayler has lived and worked in Russia, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Balkans for nearly two decades. He is a Foreign Service Officer, and previously worked in international educational development, as well as serving in the Peace Corps in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. A Russian speaker, he has also learned Turkmen, Albanian, Azerbaijani Turkish, and Vietnamese.

​Ray began publishing speculative fiction in 2015 in the pages of Asimov’s with the short story "Mutability"  Since then, his critically acclaimed stories have seen print in Clarkesworld, Analog, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Lightspeed, and Nightmare, as well as in several “Best of the Year” anthologies. His story "Winter Timeshare” from the January/February 2017 issue of Asimov's was collected by the late Gardner Dozois in The Very Best of the Best: 35 Years of the Year's Best Science Fiction.

Full bio here
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​"The one story this year that came out of nowhere to stun me was 'Mutability'"
 – Rich Horton, Editor, The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy

"I feel a sense of loss whenever I finish a truly memorable story. Why couldn’t it go on? Why do I have to leave this wonderful world? This is how I felt after reading 'Incident at San Juan Bautista' Perhaps it was the elegant writing, or maybe the attention to setting detail, but ultimately, I think it was the sheer originality that grabbed me."  --  Tangent Online

"Nayler’s works . . . always can be trusted to be wondrous, mind bending and philosophical . . . 'The Disintegration Loops,' demonstrates his skill ably. I couldn’t help but imagine how this story would make such a cool movie or TV series, it’s crafted with such a cinematic sophistication." -- ​Black Gate

Ray Nayler has been consistently producing exceptional work since his magnificent first Asimov’s story, 'Mutability', appeared in 2015. 'The Ocean Between the Leaves' is another gem." -- Locus Online

"Nayler’s descriptions throughout ['Eyes of the Forest'] are absolutely breathtaking. The way every scene pops with color and raw, unfiltered life drives home both the strangeness and beauty of this new world. Combined with the tight plot and dark humor layered within it was an absolute pleasure to read." -- Tangent Online

​More reviews and interviews here
PAST ​SF PUBLICATIONS
"The Disintegration Loops" in 
Asimov's November/December 2019
"The Death of Fire Station 10" in Lightspeed October 2019 with an audio version here
"Beyond the High Altar" in Nightmare September 2019  with text and audio
​"The Ocean Between the Leaves" (SF novelette) July/August 2019 issue of Asimov's, with an audio version for the Asimov's blog here
​"Winter Timeshare" in Forever Magazine #53 ​ June 2019
"Worlds to Live in: Atmosphere" blog for Asimov's 
"Winter Timeshare" in The Very Best of the Best: 35 Years of the Year's Best Science Fiction Gardner Dozois, ed.​
​"Fire in the Bone" (SF SS) in 
Clarkesworld  January 2019 with an audio version here.​
"Incident at San Juan Bautista" (SF SS) in Asimov's November/December 2018
"Winter Timeshare" in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fifth Annual Collection ed: Gardner Dozois: July 2018
"Winter Timeshare" in 
The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018 ed: Rich Horton (Originally published in Asimov's, January 2017) 
"Winter Timeshare" (SF SS) in Asimov's, January / February 2017
"Do Not Forget Me" (SF SS) in Asimov's March 2016
"Mutability" (SF SS) in The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2016, Ed. Rich Horton 2016
Mutability (SF SS, Hungarian translation)  in Galaktika 311  February 2016
​"Mutability" (SF SS) in Asimov's June 2015

Full bibliography here