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 in Abyss & Apex, 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 ($)
Heartlines Spec
A World in Her Tresses
The Fairy Tale Magazine
Distilling Emotion
Radon Journal
Select Fiction
Calling a Starskipper
Abyss & Apex, forthcoming
Everyone is Dying to Work Here ($)
Fission by the British Science Fiction Association
The Halfling Tree ($)
Solarpunk Magazine
A Fulfilling Life
Sci-Fi Shorts
Wielder of Wit
Stupefying Stories
Who Runs This House
100-Foot Crow
Searching for Song
101 Words
2024 Awards Eligibility
Hello friends, I am a new speculative writer and poet based in Toronto, and I’m excited to share my work with the world. Although I have a number of stories and poems published this year, here’s my favourite poem that I hope you’ll consider:
“Traveling at Lightspeed is Easy, Returning to Earth is Hard“
Small Wonders, Issue 16, October 2024
Eligible for the poetry categories of the Nebula, Hugo, Rhysling, Ignyte, and Aurora awards
My other eligible works:
Poetry
“The Sail” | Orion’s Belt
“Visions of Manhattan” | Eye to the Telescope
“Planetary Almanac: Torus” | Utopia Science Fiction
“Stealing a Moment” | Star*Line
“A Rahokan’s Gem” | Worlds of Possibility
“A World in Her Tresses” | The Fairy Tale Magazine
Fiction
“Everyone is Dying to Work Here” | Fission #4
Contact me if you need a review copy of anything not freely available above
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.