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Richard Leis
Graphic: upside down evening black mountains over a pink sky
Award-nominated horror and speculative writer and poet.
Cover for Nightmare Magazine, Issue 142, July 2024. A gruesome zombie with long hair and blood dripping from their mouth. 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 Adobe Shutterstock
Cover courtesy Nightmare, with artwork by Adobe Shutterstock.

If you’re new here, start with these free poems and stories, where small omens precede far worse. A frightened bird serves as a harbinger. An orchard demands its harvest. Fleeing natural disasters, a couple travels to watch a Mars launch. An amateur astronomer breaks up with the Moon. A witch has plans for your parents.

Then scroll down for newer work and upcoming events and publications.

Read Now
Read free poems and stories.

Larina’s Lit Lounge

Nightmare Magazine

The Molotov Cocktail

Eye to the Telescope

Eye to the Telescope

Latest flash fiction: “Curious Cat”
Book cover for Weird Fiction Quarterly: Artificial Intelligence 2025. In the artwork by Betty Rocksteady, a robot tears off its human skin from its head with one hand while holding a bloody heart in its other hand. Four hands reach into the scene with cameras to take pictures and video. Two terminal windows on the cover include command lines that reveal the title of the book (top) and some contributor names (bottom.)
Book cover courtesy of Weird Fiction Quarterly. Artwork by Betty Rocksteady.

A curious new A.I. quickly supplants previous generation avatars.

Weird Fiction Quarterly: Artificial Intelligence
Editors: Scott J. Couturier, Shayne K. Keen, and Glynn Owen Barrass

(Weird Fiction Quarterly | Announcement | TOC & Cover)

ISBN: 9798250668323

Flash Fiction ● 04 March 2026

BUY PAPERBACK:
Amazon | Other Amazon Stores

Story Details
More flash in Weird Fiction Quarterly.
Reflected trees and sky in water
Upcoming Event: 2026 Writer’s Fair

Crowne Plaza Hotel in Portland, OR

Tabling ● 31 July 2026 from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.

Join HWA Oregon at the Writer’s Fair, an annual event with programs and resources for writers hosted by Willamette Writers. It’s free and open to the pubic.

Graphic with white text lined up on the left side on a background image of attendees at an event, centered on a smiling attendee listening to two other attendees speaking. The text reads: Willamette Writers Writer's Fair Participant, Join the Horror Writers Association Oregon Chapter at the Fair, July 31st, 5-7PM, Willamette Writers Conference.
Graphic courtesy Willamette Writers
Graphic with "Writers's Fair" in a large font centered on a white background with a black border. Each letter contains candid images of attendees at past Willamette Writers events and annual conferences.
Graphic courtesy Willamette Writers
2026 Willamette Writers Conference

Crowne Plaza Hotel in Portland, OR

Conference ● 31 July – 02 August 2026

Join writers, publishing professionals, and Willamette Writers members for “a life-changing weekend of writing.” Richard will be there to help out as a board member and volunteer, and as an attendee to learn a lot and meet other writers.

Willamette Writers website header, including stylized green "W" and text "Willamette Writers" and "Community, Craft, Career"
See More Appearances
🏆 2026 Rhysling Award Finalist:
“Los fantasmas en Su Boca”
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.
Book cover courtesy of Brigids Gate Press, featuring artwork by Alison Flannery.

A poem about my great-grandmother, ghosts, gratefulness, and grief.

Poisoned Soup for the Macabre, Depraved, and Insane
Editors: Wendy Dalrymple and Grace R. Reynolds

(Brigids Gate Press | Instagram)

ISBN: 9781963355451

Poem ● 21 December 2025

BUY PAPERBACK:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books-A-Million | Bookshop.org | booktopia (AU) | Doylestown & Lahaska Bookshops | Powell’s Books

BUY EBOOK:
Amazon

The 2026 Rhysling Anthology book cover with artwork "Death on a Pale Horse" by Julie Dillon, featuring a giant skeleton with a crown, glowing yellow eyes, and a scythe on an armored white horse as they approach a village with homes and places of worship. The sky is cloudy, the air is misty, and bright yellow light is behind Death and at the center of town. The cover title is centered in yellow over the artwork, with "edited by Jordan Hirsch & AJ Wentz in three rows near the bottom right. At the bottom of the cover is the text "selected by the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association.
Book cover courtesy of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA), featuring artwork by Julie Dillon.

The 2026 Rhysling Anthology
Editors: Jordan Hirsch and AJ Wentz

(Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association)

Poem (reprint) ● July 2026

SUBSCRIBE TO RECEIVE PAPERBACK OR PDF:
Join SFPA

Initial Publication to Finalist
Award-winning or nominated.
Reflected trees and sky in water
Coming Soon: “Star Business”
Alcor Dewar and reflection of patient pod it resides in.
Alcor Dewar

A cryogenically frozen patient awakens in the future to existential dread.

Weird Fiction Quarterly: Liminal Spaces & Beings

(Weird Fiction Quarterly)

Flash Fiction ● forthcoming

SUBSCRIBE TO WEIRD FICTION QUARTERLY:
Subscription

and two post-apocalyptic poems.
Abandoned building in ‎⁨Wasco⁩, ⁨Columbia River Basin⁩, ⁨United States⁩
Abandoned building in ‎⁨Wasco⁩, ⁨Columbia River Basin⁩, ⁨United States⁩

Forced to relocate, a newcomer takes stock of what it will take to make the new place her home.

A driver rests on the hood of his car while a monstrous storm approaches.

Poem ● forthcoming

Head and shoulders shot taken in March 2021 of Richard Leis with glasses and a blue striped button shirt, sitting in front of a bookshelf.

Richard Leis writes horror, ecohorror, speculative, and literary poetry and fiction in Oregon while he works on an active Mars mission, helps as a caregiver, and volunteers at Willamette Writers and HWA Oregon.

About Richard
Complete Bibliography