About
Ian Li is a Chinese-Canadian author of speculative fiction and poetry, who started writing in late 2023 after a lifetime of believing he could never be creative. Find his writing published or forthcoming in Nightmare Magazine, Orion’s Belt, Small Wonders, and elsewhere.
He graduated summa cum laude from Columbia University with a degree in Operations Research & Financial Engineering. He leads project teams as an economist and consultant, and has extensive expertise in antitrust, market microstructure, valuation, and large-scale data analysis.
He also enjoys developing games, building websites, and solving brain teasers.
Select Poetry
Traveling at Lightspeed is Easy, Returning to Earth is Hard, Small Wonders
The Sail, Orion’s Belt
Visions of Manhattan, Eye to the Telescope
Astrometric Love, Heartlines Spec
Distilling Emotion, Radon Journal
Old Brooklyn Magic, Nightmare Magazine, forthcoming
Select Fiction
Everyone is Dying to Work Here, Fission by the British Science Fiction Association ($)
The Halfling Tree, Solarpunk Magazine
Light of My Life, Astrolabe
nominated for Best Microfiction 2025
A Fulfilling Life, Sci-Fi Shorts
Wielder of Wit, Stupefying Stories
Who Runs This House, 100-Foot Crow
Calling a Starskipper, Abyss & Apex, forthcoming
Other Projects
Brain Easer
Curated collection containing hundreds of interesting and challenging puzzles, plus explanations of how I solved them.
Eltera
Web development, design, and digital marketing services.
Contact
I love to receive notes, but I’m not very active on social media, so you can send me a message via the form below.