Interest and areas of expertise
Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Composition, Literary Theory, Small Press Editing & Publishing
Education
B.A. Creative Writing & Religious Studies (Susquehanna University, 2011)
M.F.A. Fiction & Creative Nonfiction (University of Montana, 2013)
Classes I teach
Courses in Creative Writing, Composition, Literature, and Editing & Publishing
Profile
Ryan is particularly interested in the ways writers return to old stories—to myths and to fairy tales—and work to make them new again. He’s also interested in the techniques 20th and 21st writers use to create portrayals of Christianity that are compelling to a wide secular audience. He loves teaching writing and working with students on their writing.
Ryan’s own fiction and creative nonfiction have appeared in many journals, including The Cresset, Dappled Things, The South Carolina Review, and Ruminate Online. His novella The Mountains May Depart was an honorable mention for the 2020 Landmark Prize from Homebound Publications and a finalist for the 2019 Clay Reynolds Novella Prize from Texas Review Press. He also serves as fiction editor at Solum Literary Press and is currently at work on a novel that retells and weaves together a number of Grimms’ fairy tales.
You can find his work at his author website, .
Selected Publications
“Matins, Vespers.” (Novella Excerpt). The Windhover (University of Mary Hardin-Baylor), vol. 25, no. 1, Spring 2021, pp. 17-23.
“If Party Wolf Jumps.” (Short Fiction). The Waking: Ruminate Online, 26 January 2021.
“Tuesday After School.” (Short Fiction). Still Point Arts Quarterly, Issue No. 31, Fall 2018, pp. 140-143.
“Consuming Fire.” (Memoir Essay). Bright Bones: Contemporary Montana Writing, edited by Natalie Peeterse, Open Country Press, 2018, pp. 254-257.
“Weights and Measures.” (Short Fiction). The South Carolina Review (Clemson University), vol. 48, no. 1, Fall 2015, pp. 137-146.
“Bev Trimpy’s Dog.” (Short Fiction). Dappled Things, vol. 10, no. 3, 2015, pp. 11-19.
“Images of the Invisible.” (Essay). The Cresset (Valparaiso University), vol. 78, no. 1, 2014, pp, 38-42.
“Six Feet From The Sun.” (Memoir Essay). The Common (Amherst College), 26 November 2013. Republished in The Good Men Project, 27 February 2014.