Bio
Michael Nye is the author of three works of fiction: the novel ALL THE CASTLES BURNED (Turner Publishing, 2018), and two story collections, STRATEGIES AGAINST EXTINCTION (Queen’s Ferry Press, 2012) and UNTIL WE HAVE FACES (Turner Publishing, 2020).
Nye was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. He attended The Ohio State University, where he graduated with a BA in English Literature, and the University of Missouri-St. Louis, where he earned his MFA in creative writing.
His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in literary magazines such as Kenyon Review, Epoch, Northwest Review, American Literary Review, Boulevard, Cincinnati Review, Crab Orchard Review, New South, Normal School, Sou’wester, and South Dakota Review, among many others. His writing has been a finalist for the Katherine Anne Porter Prize in fiction and nominated for the Pushcart Prize. In 2022, he received an Individual Artistic Excellence award from the Ohio Arts Council.
This academic year, he is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Kenyon College. He lives with his wife in Columbus, Ohio and is the editor of Story.
- “A Fully Imagined World” (Boulevard)
- “The Hit King” (Hobart)
- “The Photograph” (American Literary Review)
- “The Utility Room” (Atticus Review)
- “The Ecstatic” (Hobart)
- “Who Are You Wearing?” (The Normal School)
Essays (Selected)
- “My Father’s Crimes Exist In Everything I Write” (Literary Hub)
- “For The Love of the Cliche; Or, Why I Dislike Sports Movies” (LitBridge)
- “Five Easy Ways to Publicize and Promote Your Book” (Writer’s Digest)
Articles (Selected)
- Writer Kathy Bates and I discuss my novel and the relaunch of Story. Via Necessary Fiction.
- A terrific conversation with Bradley Babendir up at The Millions dives into my debut novel, writing good action scenes, literary influences, and old school 16-bit arcade games.
- My conversation with writer Fred Venturini is up at LitReactor. We discussed slush piles, editorial work, favorite short stories, and books that can be (quite literally) thrown across a room.
- Braddock Avenue Books, conducted by Jeffrey Condran
- Vouched Books: Awful Interview, conducted by Laura Relyea. We talk about NBA Jam, Jay-Z, Andre Dubus, movie villains, and how I cannot spell.
- Here’s an interview I gave to the good folks at Every Writer’s Resource about my experience as the managing editor of The Missouri Review, with a nugget or two of good (decent?) advice on publishing.
- And another interview with Priyatam Mudivarti over at The Review Review. We talk about the importance of the first page of a submission, my own experience with rejection (of which I have tons), and what I look for in a story.
- Michael Rudin of Fiction Writers Review fired off a few questions to me about my work and literary magazines.
Reading
- River Styx at the Tavern. My reading in St. Louis with my old pals at River Styx is online. The whole thing is pretty fantastic, and Alison Pelegrin’s poetry is wonderful, but if you’re impatient, hop to the twenty-eight-minute mark to watch the whole thing. I read my story “Beauty in the Age of Chaos and Savagery” (Kenyon Review)
- Oh, and KR fiction editor Caitlin Horrocks explains why she selected my story for publication.
- For the past four years, I have sporadically sent out a Tiny Letter called “Until We Have Faces” that I send out sporadic updates on a little bit of everything, such as writing, reading, work, family, you know, all that good stuff. You’re welcome to subscribe!
- I used to blog regularly at The Missouri Review. Picking one post is tricky, so why not two? This is about my post-college years and coming around — slowly — to being a writer; this one is about one of my favorite writers, Andre Dubus. And, this was my goodbye post from 2015.
- The best place to get at me is Twitter. Or your nearest basketball court. Either works.
- I’m represented by the hardest working man in the publishing business, the amazing Mark Gottlieb of Trident Media Group.
Author photo by Erica Ott