Richard Leis

@richardleis.com

607 Followers 404 Following

Writing speculative and horror poetry and fiction while working on an active Mars mission. "Curious Cat" in WEIRD FICTION QUARTERLY: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. "La fantasmas en Su Boca" nominated for the 2026 Rhysling Award. richardleis.com

Conference Keynote Mary Robinette Kowal in a blue jacket with tan scarf, orange gloves, and glasses smiles at the camera while holding several books.
Book cover of Poisoned Soup (Brigids Gate Press) with the title centered in the top half and "Curated By Wendy Dalrymple and Grace R. Reynolds" centered near the bottom. The title is in big illustrated text in smoke rising from a bubbling cauldron of, well, poisoned green soup. The cauldron is sitting on a burning logs. In the background, hexagons depict eerie illustrated scenes like ghosts rising from holes in the ground, symbols, and other forms. Artwork by Alison Flannery.
Two autofiction writers introduced at Willamette Writers Conference 2025 by director Richard Leis in the atrium at Crowne Plaza Hotel in Portland, Oregon. The three are laughing. Photo take by Gail Pasternack.
Richard Leis sitting behind his table at the Beaverton City Library Local Author Fair. Weird Fiction Quarterly anthologies with his flash fiction and anthologies with his poetry sit on mini-shelf on top of the table, and books and flyers are laid out elsewhere.
Tyler Lyle and bandmates of The Midnight, performing at the Crystal Ballroom in Portland, Oregon under blue lights.
Richard Leis was one of the co-hosts at the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars orbital insertion event on March 10, 2006. He's holding a small microphone in front of him while gesturing. A Mars globe sits on a table nearby. Behind him is footage from NASA TV of operations waiting for confirmation that MRO made it into Mars orbit.
Announcement for HWA Oregon Presents COLD Horror Reading at Beaverton City Library, Saturday, Jan 31, 2 p.m. "Join us to hear local horror authors read some winter themed spooky stories." This text is centered down the page with the HWA Oregon logo of a slug on a typewriter in the upper right and a wintery forest scene in the background in black and white.
Book cover of Poisoned Soup, curated by Wendy Dalrymple and Grace R. Reynolds and published by Brigids Gate Press floating against a black-and-white background of trees, with the publisher logo and name in the upper left and "December 2025" in the lower right. The book cover includes the title and "CURATED BY Wendy Dalrymple and Grace R. Reynolds." The title is in big illustrated text in smoke rising from a bubbling cauldron of, well, poisoned green soup. The cauldron is sitting on a burning logs. In the background, hexagons depict eerie illustrated scenes like ghosts rising from holes in the ground, symbols, and other forms.
On 2 October 2025, MRO turned away from Mars to image 3I/ATLAS, only the third interstellar object ever observed passing through our solar system! In this 3.2 second exposure, HiRISE successfully detected 3I/ATLAS at a scale of 30 km/pixel and a spacecraft distance of roughly 30 million kilometers (19 million miles). However, MRO is not well-suited to exposures of this length. The nucleus, estimated from Hubble Space Telescope images to be at most a few kilometers across, cannot be resolved in our HiRISE image. Additionally, due to spacecraft jitter during the observation period, 3I/ATLAS is smeared by several pixels. Refinement of the data continues, but we can clearly see the coma. In fact, the full coma spans our entire HiRISE image, but only the brightest inner region is detected given the exposure time used. (See an annotated version here). Throughout October, 3I/ATLAS was too close to the Sun in Earth’s sky to be visible from most telescopes, giving MRO a unique view of the coma. While the comet will pass no closer than 270 million kilometers from Earth, it came within 30 million kilometers of Mars.
Book cover of Poisoned Soup, curated by Wendy Dalrymple and Grace R. Reynolds and published by Brigids Gate Press floating against a black-and-white background of trees, with the publisher logo and name in the upper left and "December 2025" in the lower right. The book cover includes the title and "CURATED BY Wendy Dalrymple and Grace R. Reynolds." The title is in big illustrated text in smoke rising from a bubbling cauldron of, well, poisoned green soup. The cauldron is sitting on a burning logs. In the background, hexagons depict eerie illustrated scenes like ghosts rising from holes in the ground, symbols, and other forms.
Website banner for the Timberline Review, a literary magazine from Willamette Writers. The magazine title and subtitle are centered in in the graphic with an illustrated mountain scape behind the title. Behind this block is an illustration of a forest and mountain scene.
J.B. Kish provides a monster feeding orientation at the Horror Authors Book Party at the Beaverton City Library while audience members look on. Behind him, a green metal box holding the monster sits on a table decorated for the Halloween event.
Niyyah Ruscher-Haqq in costume reading a headless horseman tale in front of an audience while her daughter crouched behind a box prop holds up a potato and other prop heads.
Landsome Roads by Rebecca M. Zornow, a romantasy hardcover with the heroine on the cover glancing over her shoulder and heading toward a massive castle in a gorgeous fantasy setting. The book was photographed on an end table with autumn decorations, including orange candles and faux orange and yellow leaves and flowers.
HWA Oregon logo with an illustration of a slug typing on a typewriter. The text on the sheet of paper in the typewriter is Horroregonians. In the background there is a circle like blood or a slug slime trail around the typewriter with Horror Writers Association in rainbow and transgender flag colors, with similar colored text in an arc above the circle and Oregon Chapter in the same colored text in an arc below the circle.
Cover image: Running Man by Pam Gordimer, featuring reds, blues, and black in a space scape of nebulas and a vague running figure (I also see a skull fleeing through the universe!)
Launch of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on August 12, 2005 taken from viewing area across water. Billowing smoke and engine flames as launch vehicle containing MRO clears the ground and rises quickly into the sky.
Orange-bordered yellow square social media graphic with the following stylized text in a purple text box at the top: "SFWA 2025 Silent Auction!" Text below this in the rest of the yellow square: "Support writer advocacy & uplift! And nab great swag while doing it! May 29 - June 12." Below are two logos: the one on the left is SFWA "Advocating for SFF since 1965," and the one on the right begins with "in partnership with" with the Worldbuilders logo.
Anakin-Padme Meme. In the upper left corner, Anakin sitting in the grass and says "Great guest stars on the latest Daredevil: Born Again episodes." Padme on the upper right with a big smile says "She-Hulk, right?" Anakin on the lower left does not respond. Padme with a worried look on the lower right repeats "She-Hulk, right?"
Claw Machines installed at a local Albertsons, with two levels of machines for short and taller people, and machines on either side of the vending machine-like payment console. The items inside appear to be mostly plush creatures.
Text over a blurred background of particles like rain or beach sand: "July 30th through August 3rd, Willamette Writers Conference."
Leaving Soon I'm so sorry: I'll be leaving the Meta properties. This A.I. slop, misinformation, lies, algorithmic order, refusal to prioritize friends, family, groups to which I belong, any sense of “social” a pipe dream, long gone. I hate it here— not your fault, to be clear. This is all Meta and its ridiculous CEO’s fault. Bigots and bots, angry tech bros, MAGA and sycophants… it’s all too much. I just want to try again elsewhere, Bluesky or fair -er weather, writing blogs, a return to analog, meeting friends for lunch… anywhere is better, without Zuck (or Musk.)
Silhouettes of a victor and camels led by a cameleer against a dark pink sky. The text reads: Rejection Competition 2025. Submit. Get rejected. Rack up points. Open to all writers of all levels, all genres, all ages, all over the world. reneebibby.com/rejectioncompetition."
Flyer for "Meet a Horror Author Halloween Party" on Saturday, October 26 from 1 to 3 p.m at Beaverton City Library, Meeting Room B. Graphic of a cute pumpkin walking with candy and a thumb up, along with a bat, stars, leaves, and dots. Background is wrinkled paper or cloth. All Ages Welcome. Books, treats, candy, stories. Featuring host Frances Ippolito and Wendy Wagner, Andrew Fuller, Katherine Quevedo, Richard Leis, J.B. Kish, Sarah Walker, Eric Grove, Niyyah Ruscher-Haqq
Flyer for Beaverton City Library's "Meet a Horror Author Halloween Party" on Saturday, October 26 from 1 to 3 p.m. Graphic of a cute walking pumpkin with candy, a thumb up, and a bat, along with stars, leaves, and dots. Background is wrinkles paper or cloth. Meeting Room B. All Ages Welcome. Books, treats, candy, stories. Featuring Wendy Wagner, Andrew Fuller, Katherine Quevedo, Richard Leis, J.B. Kish, Sarah Walker, Frances Ippolito.
Flyer for October 25th reading at BOLD Coffee & Books at 7:00 to 7:30 p.m. PT in Portland, Oregon, featuring Oregon HWA writers. Graphic includes a spooky tree with no leaves, bats, and the full moon behind clouds. Text: "A Halloween Reading. You're Invited to Hear Spooky Stories! October 25th @ 7-8:30 pm at the new BOLD Coffee & Books 1755 SW Jefferson St., Portland, OR." The Oregon HWA logo with a bloody slug on a typewriter with paper with the text "Horroregonians" on it.
Cover of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Summer 2024, by Mondolithic Studios, with an image of a ruined arch at the edge of a cliff overlooking a lake surrounded by mountains, with three silver UFOs hovering in the blue cloudy sky above. In addition to the magazine banner, authors and stories are listed: "Phoenix Alexander: Slickerthin," "Another Such Victory, Albert Chu," "Esther M. Friesner, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Xinwei Kong, Marie Vibbert." Barcode with pricing and "Display Until Oct 29."
Book cover for We Are Here to Hurt Each Other by Paula D. Ashe, with a face made of teeth in front of a city and a black-winged person, with splatters of blood, in a grim, desolate, and faded style
Announcement of Kay Snow Winners, including first place and runner-up in nonfiction, fiction, scriptwriting, and The Paulann Petersen Award for Poetry.
New anthologies from Zombies Need Brains on a bookshelf, including Ampyrium, Last-Ditch, Familiars, and ZNB Presents: Year Two. The Ampyrium cover depicts a radial city of portals from above. The Last-Ditch cover is a person with a futuristic headset on with wires vanishing above them. The Familiars cover has several mythical animals standing looking forward at the viewer, against a backdrop of a forest. And ZNB Presents: Year Two has a cover with a person standing before a round portal that leads to a futuristic looking city in twilight.
Cover of Star*Line issue 47.3 (Summer 2024) with artwork "Staring at the Night Sky" by Denny E. Marshall. In this stylized illustration, a robot shaped from colorful geometric shapes that suggest cities, buttons, technology, and space travel gazes at the stars with a green landscape in the background below a black sky and stars.
Cover for Nightmare Magazine, Issue 142, July 2024. A large octopus-like creature with many tentacles stands in the ocean against a background of thick clouds. Title of magazine is "Nightmare," subtitle is "Horror and Dark Fantasy". Fiction and poetry authors are listed: Thomas Ha, Sara S. Messenger, Megan Chee, Richard Leis. Cover text continues with issue 142, July 2024, Editor Wendy N. Wagner at the bottom. Cover by Kitoumi / Adobe Shutterstock
While taking pictures of the auroras during the 2024 solar storm, the camera took some weird images, like this one with a ghostly red splotch (maybe my thumb?) on a dark background.
Photo: 2024 Nebula Conference Welcome signage at hosting hotel in Pasadena, CA. A space scene with a nebula on the top of the sign, test in the middle, SFWA logo at the bottom. Sign is by a wall on ground floor, in front of stairs leading up to registration and conference rooms.
Jessi the black lab trying to lick Richard's face.
Book cover of The Heartbeat of the Universe: Poems from Asimov's Science Fiction and Analog Science Fiction and Fact 2012-2022, edited by Emily Hockaday. Illustration with bold arcs and circles depicts a galaxy and stars and other astronomical objects.
Top of interior page with "All Saints Day" by Lisa Bellamy, a poem in The Heartbeat of the Universe: Poems from Asimov's Science Fiction and Analog Science Fiction and Fact 2012-2022, Emily Hockaday, Editor. After the title and byline are the first three lines: "Today they mostly among us until sundown, / listen to our chatter, nudge each other, read the news / over our shoulders; they window shop,"
Sarah Walker's acrylic painting centers on shadowy figures running across a field of grass, with blades of grass highlighted in the foreground and growing outside the borders of the painting, with mountains and forests in the background, under many stars and a big moon in the night sky. This amazing work of art will accompany my upcoming flash fiction story in Weird Fiction Quarterly's folk horror issue (out later this spring.)
Announcement for 2024 Nebula Conference, June 6-9 - Pasadena, CA and Online. Space scene in the background, with colorful nebulas and stars. Text continues with "Professional development, panels, and networking for genre fiction writers! Early bird registration ends March 14 events.sfwa.org"
Cover for the Winter 2024 issue of the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, with an astronaut on an icy moon of Jupiter sitting on a boulder looking at Jupiter and its rings huge in the black sky
Screenshot of the coming soon section of Richard Leis's website, with circle images of a telescope pointed at the Milky Way in the sky and a waterfall in Hawai'i. Text says "Cities through telescopes. City as fairy tale. Coming in February 2024: Two post-apocalyptic cities. One award-winning science fiction and fantasy magazine. Journey into the green. Coming Spring 2024: An ekphrastic poem about contemplation in lush wilderness.