Ava Neumaier is a speculative fiction writer from New York. She is a Writing Fellow and Teaching Assistant at the University of Iowa who has worked on the editing staff of Ink Lit Mag and earthwords. Her short stories have been published in Orlando, Fools, New Moon, Wilder Things, and others. An alumni of the Iowa Young Writers Studio, in 2024 she received an Excellence in Writing Award from the American Association of University Women, and her short story “Strange Cargo” was nominated for the American Voices Award in 2023. She will be entering her fourth year as an undergraduate at UI. Her writing merges the otherworldly with the everyday. She is currently learning American Sign Language and how to manage the campus greenhouse.