writer | poet | economist | developer
Latest news
- Light of My Life is featured on the Toronto subway system!
- The Memory Technician has been selected for Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy & Science Fiction!
- Old Brooklyn Magic is a Rhysling award finalist!
About
Ian Li is a Chinese-Canadian writer and poet who started writing in late 2023 after a lifetime of believing he could never be creative. Find his work featured or forthcoming in Lightspeed, Strange Horizons, Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy & Science Fiction, the Toronto subway system, and many other venues.
He graduated summa cum laude from Columbia University, and led project teams as an economist and consultant for many years. He 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
- originally published in Astrolabe; nominated for Best Microfiction 2025
- reprinted in Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy & Science Fiction
- reprinted in the Toronto subway system through Poems in Passage
Your Cause and Your Effect, Small Wonders
Old Brooklyn Magic, Nightmare Magazine
- 2026 Rhysling Award finalist
Visions of Manhattan, Eye to the Telescope
- 2025 Rhysling Award finalist
not tied down, Strange Horizons
The Sail, Orion’s Belt
Flighty, Kaleidotrope
- featured in Charles Payseur’s Locus review, July 2025
Rocket Feet, Bywords
- 2025 John Newlove Poetry Award, Honourable Mention
Select Short Stories
The Memory Technician, Small Wonders
- Locus 2025 Recommended Reading List
- forthcoming in Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy & Science Fiction
- featured in Charles Payseur’s Locus review, June 2025
- featured in Myna Chang’s Flash Roundup, March 2025
On Fields of Purple Grass, Augur
The Drowned, Apex Microfiction Contest, 1st place
Have You Eaten Yet?, Worlds of Possibility ($)
- featured in Alex Brown’s Must Read Short Speculative Fiction: February 2025
If I Have Defects, Am I Defective?, Short Édition
When the Sky Tumbled Down, Vast Chasm
Selected Case Notes from the Judicial Oversight Council of the Gatarn Empire, Lightspeed, forthcoming
Other Projects
Brain Easer
Curated collection of 200+ interesting and challenging puzzles, with detailed explanations of how I solved them.
Contact
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