Kirkus Review and Bio

Author of Horses All Over Hell and Down in the River, Ryan has a GED, an MA in English, and an Iowa Writers' Workshop MFA. His work explores small towns and small cities, the working class, loss of family, grave robbery, the arts, drinking and sobriety, with neurodiverse byways here and there. Ryan serves as a fiction writing mentor for PEN America's Justice Writing Program. His books are explored in Poets & Writers, Kirkus Review, Fiction Writers Review, Paste Magazine, Rain Taxi Review of Books, and elsewhere. His stories appear in Antioch Review, Alaska Quarterly, Crab Orchard, Image, Other Voices, Quick Fiction, and elsewhere. And he doesn't write religious fiction, as his Google panel states. 

Inquiries about Ryan's books should be sent to 

colorwheel22(at)icloud.com. 

"The author’s prose is as outstanding as the story it conveys, with spare, raw dialogue and deft scene-setting that is descriptive without feeling overwrought." 

--Kirkus Review, on Horses All Over Hell

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/ryan-blacketter/horses-all-over-hell/

Rain Taxi Interview

 Interview excerpt from "His Own Private Idaho" in Rain Taxi Review of Books. You can purchase it for $5.00 from the link below.

The author of the short story collection Horse All Over Hell (Wipf and Stock, 2019) and the novel Down in the River (Wipf and Stock, 2019) talks about his work, inspirations, and characters.

Interview 

ASO’K: I’d like to ask about Horses All Over Hell, your short story collection released by Wipf and Stock in 2019.

It’s a book of related stories focused upon a family: mother, father, and two sons. You depict problems caused or affected by alcoholism, mental health issues, and religious fundamentalism. These are adult problems, viewed by Cory, a child, who is the elder son. He also does what he can to look after Matt, his younger brother. Why did you choose Cory as the central character?

RB: A child inhabits a compelling psychological world. To a kid, a dog might have the power to read minds. A horse on the side of the road might cast a judgmental glance. Cory’s young enough to live in that magic, but old enough to grasp the troubles of his family. He’s an ideal observer.   

Poets & Writers Notice

The Poets & Writers article "The Thousand Pages” reflects on something Ryan said years ago about his first book, Down in the River. https://www.pw.org/content/the_thousand_pages_tips_for_transitioning_to_the_novel

Ryan's NY Observer Essays (and a few others)--Republished in Arts & Letters Daily and Elsewhere.

I've moved away from writing essays, but I think my best essay was the most inflammatory, in Quillette. I compared two communities, one right and one left, and discovered that political correctness was alive and well on both sides. Political correctness--a term that Christian patriots do not own--is found in various American groups. It might have something to do with our early colonies when people needed to fit in or risk expulsion, when Cotton Mather struck fear into those who stood alone in their beliefs.

From "A Raft of Books," in Quillette: "In 2008, university officials ordered 15,000 condom coupons destined for freshman eyes to be removed from circulars, by scissors. In 2005, they censored fliers that promoted university films and lectures by covering them with stickers to be 'less offensive.' It was as though church moms were everywhere, tidying up, dumping unclean books and magazines, and wiping all the windows that looked onto God’s blue sky."

From my Milo essay in the NY Observer: “I support anyone's right to speak and publish. But my own feeling is that Milo was often thin stuff—he was one-dimensional, neglecting to locate any other personality trait that might mitigate his constant judgments about people on the left . . . His rhetoric was absent goodwill that might truly persuade, and therefore he lacked complexity and depth on the stage. In short, too much stupidity issued from his pretty mouth.”

“Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires.”
― William Shakespeare, Macbeth

Macbeth is the most intriguing of Shakespeare’s tragedies to me. That’s because Macbeth is so changeable, ambitiously seizing on the evil of killing the king, then fretting that he will lose his eternal jewel, his soul, as if cross-currents travel in him throughout, as if many voices compete to be heard. There are several psychologically interesting quotes that explore the nature of evil, that it must be hidden behind a smile, as Lady Macbeth says. This from Macbeth: “Stars, hide your fires, Let not light see my black and deep desires.” But Macbeth pursues his plan in tortured fashion, too good to dispatch his conscience, too bad to do the right. He’s a rare character whose enormous and ugly evil is mitigated by the powerful rage he feels against his own nature.

I have written of great evil and I have written of good people who committed it without understanding, but few wrote about it with such fearsome clarity as Shakespeare.

Recommendations from PEN American Justice Writing

PEN managers Robbie and Caits

Robbie Pollock: "Ryan has exhibited a commendable dedication to his role as a prison writing mentor, showcasing a passion for the craft of writing that has positively influenced his mentees. His commitment to providing tailored resources for each individual reflects a genuine interest in fostering creative growth within a challenging environment."

Caits Meissner: "Ryan has leveraged his own life experiences to forge a bridge of connection, building trust in order to model and support each writer in their creative endeavors . . .

    Ryan has also volunteered his skills and talents beyond mentorship, stepping up to edit two long award-winning pieces in our Prison Writing Contest. The editing job was a rush turn around, and Ryan not only asked relevant questions that helped inform the process of our other editors, but submitted the work in fine-tuned form well before deadline."

Praise for Ryan Blacketter's Fiction Titles.

  

Praise for Horses All Over Hell (Available at Wipf & Stock).
“Horses All Over Hell is a heartbreaking new book from a master of modern American fiction.”
—Ernest Hilbert, author of Last One Out, book critic for Wall Street Journal. Dust jacket blurb.

“The eleven intricately woven short stories of Horses All Over Hell portray a family caught in an ever-deepening spiral of damage and despair while bound together by ties of love in a Western landscape that comes to life on the page. The deep flaws, the beauty, and the bravery of these richly imagined characters will linger with the reader long after the last page.”
—Mary Clearman Blew, author of Jackalope Dreams and Ruby Dreams of Janis Joplin

" Moving yet realistic and unsentimental, this is a finely crafted collection of short fiction."
--Arthur O'Keefe, author of The Spirit Phone

Selected Praise for Down in the River.

“A heartbreaking, macabre pilgrimage.” 

–Paste Magazine

“Even as Lyle runs toward trouble and danger, his youthful optimism, however delusory it might be, flickers in these pages, compelling the reader to journey deeper into night, in search of hope and redemption.” 

--The Rumpus

“Lyle is clearly disturbed, but Blacketter never lets him become a caricature, never lets his mental illness cloud his personality or override his humanity. Like Dubus’s characters, even his most terrible deeds are driven by noble impulses and understandable grief.” 

--Fiction Writers Review

“Ryan Blacketter's Down in the River is an impressive debut novel that effectively tackles themes of mental illness and grief.” 

--Largehearted Boy

"A remarkable, darkly startling and endearing debut novel . . . As Lyle’s quest unfolds with messy inevitability, I am rooting for this young man, I am living as this young man, I am learning to feel as skewed and caring as Lyle does. And what a pleasure this is, and what great inspiration to a fellow writer the experience of Down in the River is. I cannot recommend this novel enough." 

--The Quivering Pen

"A strange, haunting journey across the shadowy landscape of grief and longing. To our good fortune, Ryan Blacketter is a heroic guide into this exploration of the mysterious workings of the human heart . . . This is a brave first novel from a writer to be watched." 

--Mitch Wieland, author of God's Dogs

"I can't remember when I've liked a character as much as I like young Lyle Rettew, or when I've cheered one on so hard, despite the fact that he's clearly crazy and his quest is doomed." 

--Pinckney Benedict, author of Miracle Boy and Other Stories