About Ryan O. Rivera
I write about the stories we inherit and the people we bcome.
My fiction and essays explore memory, identity, longing, technology, and the moments when the lives we have constructed begin to shift beneath us.
I am particularly interested in the uncomfortable process of becoming someone new: the tension between who we have been, who others expect us to be, and who we might still become.
The Work
Fiction, essays, and reflective experiences.
Ryan O. Rivera is a writer based in New York City. He earned an MFA in Prose and Poetry from Northwestern University, where he completed Cardiopulmonary Occlusions, a collection of nine short stories and two essays. His work has received the Midwestern State University of Texas President’s Prize for Prose and has appeared in Voices andThe Cauldron.
His fiction and essays are grounded in the belief that we are continuously creating new versions of ourselves. Across stories of queer identity, grief, ambition, intimacy, and transformation, he is drawn to the moments when a life begins to shift and a person must decide what to carry forward.
Ryan is also the creator of In Search of Lost Time, an independent publication exploring memory, attention, identity, art, and technology. He is developing Quantum Oracle, a reflective system that combines symbolic cards, scientific ideas, and AI-guided inquiry to help people ask better questions about what is possible.
His background in product strategy, marketing, artificial intelligence, and digital experience informs how he approaches these projects: not as separate pursuits, but as an evolving body of writing, tools, and experiences created to encourage observation, insight, and intention.