Oliver Nash is a writer obsessed with everything scary, funny, weird, and mind-bending. Their work crosses genres—from sci-fi and horror, to the new weird and the comedic, to more traditional literary fiction—in order to tackle issues such as eco-anxiety, existentialism, and queerness. You can find them on Goodreads and Medium. They find their greatest influence in writers like Jeff VanderMeer, China Miéville, Kathe Koja, and James S.A. Corey. Special mentions to Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, Andrew Krivak’s The Bear, Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, Emma Cline’s Girls, Jean-Paul Sartre’s Nausea, Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, Philip K. Dick’s Valis, Scott Hawkins’ The Library at Mount Char, Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi, and Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire.
Oliver Nash began writing in 2017, when they were working as a camp counselor. Barred from telling their campers the official camp horror story, Oliver decided to write one of their own, which, of course, ended up being an imitation of their favorite horror writers: Lovecraft and King. Though that story is (thankfully) unlikely to ever be read again, it was what set them down their path as a writer, and more specifically their love for the weird in lit.
Since 2021, Oliver has attended the MFA program at the University of Alabama, where they've received support from the Truman Capote Literary Trust. They’ve worked as an assistant editor for the Black Warrior Review; a graduate assistant, instructor, and creative writing camp counselor at UA; and as a tutor and freelance writer/editor. Their time in AL is split between searching the forest for edible mushrooms and trying to write the next great weird novel.
In 2022, they were a finalist for The Headlight Review’s chapbook contest and the Ohioana Library Association’s Walter Rumsey Marvin Grant, as well as a semi-finalist for the Tomaž Šalamun prize. They were also longlisted for the Frontier Poetry chapbook contest.
Crystal Lake Publishing
(Forthcoming Q3 2023)
Spectrum Literary Journal
Santa Ana River Review
The Albion Review
The Offing
The Haven