“With language both elegiac and irreverent, Otte explores characters trapped in liminal spaces between reality and delusion, oblivion and grief, cruelty and devotion, but within the debris something beautiful persists.”
Salar Abdoh, Author of A Nearby Country Called Love (on “Eau de Mims”)
“The writing is sharp. The plotting is near perfect. Narrative “fuses” are lit early on, and with a confidence that ensures they’ll go off on precisely the right pages…a masterful blend of family, parenthood, ecological disaster, inherited wealth, and a tinge of magical realism.”
Nick Fuller Googins, author of The Great Transition (on The Snag)
Photo: Josh Coll
Nick Otte’s writing has appeared in Boulevard, Electric Literature, i-D Magazine, Arts & Letters, The Masters Review, The Baltimore Review, Words Without Borders and elsewhere.
He earned an MFA from The City College of New York, was a Teacher of Special Programs with the National Writing Project at UC Berkeley, and currently teaches writing at Baruch College.
The opening chapters of his novel in progress, “The Snag,” won the 2026 Novel Excerpt Contest at The Master’s Review. He was named runner-up in Boulevard’s 2023 Emerging Writer contest, was a finalist in the 2025 Adrift Short Story Competition, was a recipient of the Dejur prize in fiction, and has received a residency from Jentel Arts.
Contact him at: nick.otte@gmail.com