Brian Niemeier

Brian Niemeier is an American science fiction horror author. In 2016, he was nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and won the inaugural fan-voted Dragon Award for Best Horror Novel.

Background
Brian Niemeier grew up in Peoria, Illinois. He attended Bradley University in Peoria for his undergraduate work, then earned an MA at the Franciscan University of Steubenville.

Writing career
Niemeier was nominated for John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2016; he has openly admitted that this was solely a result of his having been selected by the Sad Puppies campaign. The award voters ranked him sixth of five nominees, below "No Award". His second novel, Souldancer, won the inaugural Dragon Award for Best Horror Novel. When Niemeier's novel The Secret Kings was nominated at the 2017 Dragon Awards, The Verge contributor Andrew Liptak cited the book's low ratings at Goodreads (numbering 11 at the time) when discussing whether or not the Dragons were awarding the works most popular with fans. Niemeier has since stated that the Dragon Awards have been taken over by the "Death Cult" that controls the Hugo Awards, and that they "took advantage of the drastically reduced voter base to pack the ballot" in 2020. Mike Glyer, of File 770, described Niemeier as negatively spinning the results of the 2020 Dragon Awards because Niemeier's friends didn't win.

Soul Cycle series

 * 1) Nethereal (June 2015, ISBN 978-1-5142-9921-0; self-published)
 * 2) Souldancer (February 2016, ISBN 978-1-5300-2133-8; self-published)
 * 3) The Secret Kings (December 2016, ISBN 978-1-5412-1057-8; self-published)
 * 4) The Ophian Rising (December 2017, ISBN 978-1-9735-5797-5; self-published)

Nonfiction

 * Don't Give Money to People Who Hate You (April 2020, ISBN 979-8-6386-1347-1; self-published)

Short works

 * "Beta Geminorum" (January 2012, Jersey Devil Press)
 * "Reign of Terror" (April 2012, in Title Goes Here)
 * "Strange Matter" (January 2015, in Sci Phi Journal #3, edited by Jason Rennie, Robert J. Wigard, and Peter Sean Bradley, ISBN 978-0-9941758-3-0)
 * "Izcacus" (October 2015)
 * "Anacyclosis" (2016, in "Sci Phi Journal")