About

Richard Banks (Gustafson) is a novelist, playwright, award-winning short-story writer, screenwriter, and occasional background actor (Yellowstone, Landman, and The Madison).

An explorer at heart, Richard has visited, lived, or worked in all fifty U.S. states and more than forty countries worldwide. He trained as a safari guide in Africa, served as a UN peacekeeper in Yugoslavia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and flew helicopters in Croatia, Macedonia, and the United States. He spent years as an airline pilot before turning to writing full-time.  His home in Texas—affectionately dubbed Base Camp—serves as the launch point for both his travels and creative work.

Richard’s novella Me & Mickey was selected as a runner-up for the 2025 Faulkner-Wisdom Award, and the short-story excerpt “Rent Money: A Me and Mickey Story” won the Zebulon Award from Pikes Peak Writers.

His novel The Price of Ash was a finalist for both the 2025 Faulkner-Wisdom Award and the 2023 Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Gold Rush Award. Richard’s short stories have received honors from the E.M. Koeppel Short Fiction Contest, the Writers-Editors Network, and the Denver Women’s Press Club, and his work also appears in The Nefarious North Anthology.

In 2024, the Questors Theatre (Q-Extra) and Actors and Writers London presented readings of his full-length stage play The Weigh Station. He is currently developing several new works, including Over There, Being Ernest (a second-rounder at the Austin Film Festival), and Painting with Water.

Richard also writes the weekly Substack newsletter That’s My Window on the World, exploring the intersection of curiosity, memory, and the idea of living one good life—with stories that blend travel, reflection, and quiet humor.

In addition to fiction and theatre, he has written features for Colorado publications and was a regular contributor to Colorado Community Media.

Richard Banks holds a Master of Liberal Studies in Global Affairs and a Certificate in Creative Writing from the University of Denver.