Nayman's first book, a collection featuring a novella and short stories, was published by Scribner in 2006. Like most of her work, Awake in the Dark takes the Second World War as its subject matter, portraying the lives of children of Holocaust victims and perpetrators as they struggle with their parents' legacy. Newsday named it one of the best books of 2006, writing, "The bleak, beautiful and deftly plotted stories are like nothing out there, taking as their theme the collateral damage of Nazism, delivered in many cases with an O. Henry twist.” Karen R. Long gave the book a glowing review in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, writing that, in these stories, the Holocaust "is the smoldering demon that reaches across generations, scraping its talons into the interior lives of children and grandchildren who were, metaphorically and literally, left in the dark." It was also named a notable book of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle.
''The Listener'' and ''A Mind of Winter''
Nayman followed up the success of Awake in the Dark with a debut novel, The Listener, which was published by Scribner in 2009. A psychological drama that takes place in a mental asylum in upstate New York in the aftermath of World War II, The Listener expanded on many of the themes she had investigated in her previous work by exploring the havoc historical trauma plays with the psyche and illuminating the uncertain boundary between sanity and insanity. It was praised as "an honest look at the way trauma and violence afflict an entire generation's psyche," and elsewhere described as a "gripping narrative with style and depth." It was listed as an Editors Choice in the New York Times. Her second novel, A Mind of Winter, was published by Akashic Books in 2012. This time coming at the Second World War by way of Shanghai, London, and Long Island, A Mind of Winter is a psychological thriller that once again asks how war can shape identity and experience. Named one of Library Journal's "Best 2012 Indie Novels," A Mind of Winter was well received by critics, praised for having "the beauty and elegance of a Victorian novel," and for "tak the reader on a journey into the abyss of human experience."
''River''
RIVER, a young adult novel, will be published in April, 2020, by Guernica World Editions. River is the story of a fourteen-year-old girl who travels back in time, and across continents, encountering her maternal forebears when they were her age. From the Australian Outback, where she meets a young Aboriginal man, to brutal, racist South Africa during World War II, to the midst of a pogrom in Lithuania, and then all the way back to the Babylon of Biblical times, Emily has deep encounters with the young women she meets, as well as with the history that shapes them—and ultimately, the histories that have mysteriously and yet powerfully shaped her own soul. Advance praise: "luminescent... what the history of a family truly means. A breathtaking read." Jennifer Gilmore, author of the YA novel, If Only. "This surprising and moving book tells a poignant coming of age story while magically sailing along down the long flow of generations through the centuries. We see everything as in a Chagall painting: dark, romantic, wild, familiar yet strange, tinged with tragedy, yet buoyant and filled with grace. Beautifully written and imagined, River brings us face to face with the real and powerful meaning of family history."--Amy Wilentz, author of "Farewell, Fred Voodoo: A Letter from Haiti." "...a classic tale of longing...this richly imagined story travels the river of time to a past that shows us who we are now." Kate Manning, author of My Notorious Life.
Other publications
Nayman has also published fiction and nonfiction in publications such as The Atlantic, Cousin Corinne's,The Georgia Review, The New England Review, and Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Thought. A short story commissioned by NPR, "Moon Landing," was broadcast in December 2010, and was chosen as one of eight stories to appear in the "Best of Hanukkah Lights" broadcast.
Teaching and consulting
Nayman has taught psychology at Rutgers University, literature at Columbia University, and fiction writing at Barnard College. She has also taught in the Program of Narrative Medicine at Columbia University. In addition to her writing and teaching career, Nayman is a marketing consultant who has developed positioning strategy for major brands and product launches for such Fortune 100 companies as Microsoft, Hershey, AOL, and political campaigns, including the Center for National Policy and Hillary Clinton's United States Senate campaign. After twenty-three years with Strategic Frameworking, Inc., Nayman founded her own company, Shira Nayman Consulting, in 2012. www.shiranayman.com She specializes in in-depth psychological research as well as children's and women's issues.
Awards
Nayman has received three-year-long grants for fiction writing from the Australia Council for the Arts Literature Board. She is also the recipient of the Cape Branch Award for an Emerging Woman Writer, and a fiction-writing grant from the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute. Shira is also a 2018-2019 MacDowell Fellow, and spent time at The MacDowell Colony in January-February, 2019, working on her new book Shoreline, a "memory book" creative memoire.
