Richard Leis

Category: Published

  • “[animal revolt]”

    Journal cover of Star*Line issue 45.4 (Fall 2022) with an abstract illustration of red, white, and black strokes that are jagged, perhaps resembling rivulets of blood. Cover illustration is "Untitled 8" by Adam Mars.

    Star*Linevol 45, no. 4Fall 2022 Description Three short lines, one ferocious attack. Background When I started reading Star*Line and other publications from the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association, I was bemused by the shortest poems, those one or two or three line wonders that offer a quick punchline or pithy speculative thought. It wasn’t…

  • “ad perficiendum”

    List of poets in Issue 11 of Impossible Archetype, to be released on 31 March 2022

    “Everything breaks down. During a season of harms, / every disaster looks premeditated. You imagine things.”

  • “Pangaea Proxima,” “Panthalassa,” & “Juniper Tree, Boy and Bird”

    Book cover for Adult Children: Being One, Having One & What Goes In-Between, a Wising Up Anthology, with a blue background and an image of art on a wall with a nude woman and the text "No sooner had you created me than I cased to be yours"

    “My mother is a superocean. She bore us. Bears us. Bears / our accusations in rain and rivulet to river. A wave, she / surrounds us.”

  • “From Them Prostrate I Flee”

    Book cover for Stories We Tell After Midnight Volume Three with list of authors, title, edited by Rachel A. Brune and an image of a skull and skeleton fading into the black background

    “I don’t have any trouble remembering my dad, though. I have no trouble remembering his rage, my fear, and the way the ground opened up and it was the only way out that April night in 1987.”

  • Reorganizing My Website, Reorganizing My Life

    Screen shot of updated website menus (home, about, poetry, short fiction, workshops, contact, and blog)

    It’s time for a website reorganization that focuses entirely on writing and teaching while burying my past activities.

  • “Bird Chooses to Make a Habitat of Heart”

    Impossible Archetype Issue 9 poets list

    “Give me back / my heart, beautiful bird. Mistake me for an open window.”

  • “Goodbye to Rock”

    The Molotov Cocktail Elemental Flash Issue cover with a golden person or god perhaps on fire descending into a green gas or the atmosphere of a planet, with other planets or moons and a starscape in the background

    “We remind them that road trips and human exploration lead back, without adding ‘if all goes well.’ Ride an explosion, walk on another rocky surface, collect some samples, more vials, return with the samples on top of another explosion. We can be there to cheer them on.”

  • “I Can’t Explain Love or Loss if the Only Language I Have is Geology or What I Watch on YouTube”

    “The couple quit uploading to YouTube two years ago. / Their videos are something pitiful and earnest now, / something long buried, sand-scratched, rubbed raw. / Thumbs down, I think. None of my business.”

  • Flash Monster 2020 Short List

    My flash fiction story “A Bird Watcher’s Guide to Malformed and Buzzing Things” earned a spot on the close-but-no-cigar shortlist shout-outs for the annual Flash Monster contest from The Molotov Cocktail!

  • “In Which I Invent a Man”

    List of Impossible Archetype Issue 8 poets under journal logo, release date, and URL

    “I must / still look for / him. My constant / resentment.”

  • I See and It’s Not Nearly Enough

    Black header to support Black lives matter

    “I see how police officers and forces and governments react when they are challenged for their violent policies and racist behaviors. I see how they empower and embrace white supremacy groups and vigilantes while targeting Black people, people of color, peaceful and agitated demonstrators. I see how so many Americans have opinions about rioting and…

  • “In a Mirror, Dimming”

    Screen shot of table of contents of Issue 37 of online journal Eye to the Telescope

    “Beyond the scarred surface, I saw the bones of the Moon, / the geology of a crime. He would not speak of it.”

  • h+

    h+ logo with falling leaves in header 2020

    Richard designed, developed, and maintained the original h+ Tucson website as well as the expanded h+ website for multiple chapters and new transhumanist-related content, including a gallery of transhumanist art, links, and other resources.

  • Painbow

    Painbow Header with rainbow gradient against white background

    Richard Leis created Painbow after he witnessed and experienced two incidents of discrimination. His idea was to briefly describe each situation, include the hurtful statement itself, and provide a short response.

  • RADIO Frontier Channel

    RADIO Frontier Channel Header 2020 with silhouette of radio telescope

    RADIO Frontier Channel was a podcast from Frontier Channel hosted by Richard Leis in 2005 that included science and technology news and interviews with scientists at the University of Arizona.

  • Frontier Channel

    Image courtesy of Earth Sciences and Image Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center from The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth - This view of Earth's horizon as the sun sets over the Pacific Ocean was taken by an Expedition 7 crew member onboard the International Space Station (ISS). Anvil tops of thunderclouds are also visible." [Credit from Wikipedia]

    The Frontier Channel website edited by Richard Leis provided news and commentary about the “Great Frontiers of cyberspace, outer space, the ocean, and destinations in between.”

  • Flashpocalypse Short List

    My flash fiction story “The Canal” was shortlisted for The Molotov Cocktail’s latest quarterly flash contest: Flashpocalypse!

  • “Witch House”

    Screen shot of table of contents of Issue 36 of online journal Eye to the Telescope

    “Little girls in white dresses skipping rope / & chanting singsong in slow motion we stole / from an 80’s horror film.”

  • “Passage”

    List of Impossible Archetype Issue 7 poets under journal logo, release date, and URL

    “I drove Pacific Northwest November numb / through trees like tall green drifts to the ocean / seething with chaos.”

  • “The Yogurt Swimmer”

    Coppice & Brake book cover with illustrated crows standing on top of an illustrated doorway open to a picture of trees stand stark and tall in the snow

    “A snout breaks the surface of Greek yogurt in the 32-ounce container I have freshly opened and set on the counter. It sniffs cautiously, then sneezes and sprays yogurt everywhere. I yell. It pokes its entire head out and chirps. Mel is at daycare, Bill at his office. I’m between jobs and spend my days…