Writer. Seeker. Swimmer. Bard.

Robert Walikis is a writer, playwright, poet, and songwriter.

His short story “Barbarians at the Gates of Your HOA” was the winner of New Letter’s 2026 Robert Day Award for Fiction. His creative nonfiction essay "Most Non-Compete Clauses are Legally Unenforceable" was runner-up for Grist Journal's Issue 16 ProForma Contest. His very short story “Funerary Rumors” was second runner-up for PRISM International’s 2022 Grouse Grind Lit Prize for V Short Forms. His short stories “Terrafir” and “Peak Child” were semifinalists for the North American Review’s 2023 and 2022 Kurt Vonnegut Speculative Fiction Prizes.

Rob’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in New Letters, Post Road, Grist Journal, PRISM International, JMWW, Sonora Review, Bridge Eight, Barzakh, Literary North, Pif Magazine, Masque & Spectacle and a FlowerSong Press short play anthology. His self-published poetry site is opentank.com.

He graduated from Cornell University and lives in Midcoast Maine with his wife-partner-writer Diana Mullins. He is a member of the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance and sometimes imagines he is following in the footsteps of Thomas Pynchon.

Rob makes maps and tells stories.