Tracy Ryan (born 1964) is an Australian poet and novelist. She has also worked as an editor, publisher, translator, and academic.

Life

Tracy Ryan was born in Western Australia, where she grew up as part of a large family. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Literature from

Curtin University Curtin University, formerly known as Curtin University of Technology and Western Australian Institute of Technology (WAIT), is an Australian public research university based in Bentley, Perth, Western Australia. It is named after John Curtin, ...

and studied European languages at the

University of Western Australia The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Perth, the state capital, with a secondary campus in Albany, Western Australia, Albany an ...

. She has lived in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

, England, where she worked as a bookseller, tutor, editor, and writer. She was Judith E. Wilson Junior Visiting Fellow at

Robinson College Robinson College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1977, it is one of the newest Oxbridge colleges and is unique in having been intended, from its inception, for both undergraduate and graduate students of b ...

, Cambridge in 1998. She taught Australian Literature and Film at the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and 26 schools of study. The annual income of the institution f ...

. She has also lived in

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

in the USA. She is married to poet John Kinsella and has two children.

Literary career

Tracy Ryan has published over nine books, including three novels. Her poetry has appeared in several magazines, such as ''Salt'', ''Literary Review'', and ''Cordite''. She has also appeared in anthologies. Ryan is particularly interested in languages and has translated several French writers including

Hélène Cixous Hélène Cixous (; ; born 5 June 1937) is a French writer, playwright and literary critic. She is known for her experimental writing style and great versatility as a writer and thinker, her work dealing with multiple genres: theater, literary a ...

Maryline Desbiolles Maryline Desbiolles (born 21 May 1959 in Ugine, Savoie) is a French writer and winner of the Prix Femina, 1999, for ''Anchise''. References

1959 births Living people People from Savoie French women novelists 20th-century French novelist ...

, and Francoise Han. In the 1990s, Ryan, with John Kinsella, developed Folio(Salt), an offshoot of ''Salt Magazine''. It publishes and co-publishes "books and chapbooks focused on a pluralist vision of contemporary poetry which extended across national boundaries and a wide range of poetic practices". Reviewer Tim Allen, reviewing the anthology ''Foil'', wrote of her poetry as follows: "Tracy Ryan’s poems are tightly packed vibrations of spiky conceits. They have a restless intelligence which seems to suspect everything they touch; the references are scholarly and the contention is feminist but the result is polychromatic." The John Kinsella and Tracy Ryan Poetry Prize was established in 2005 and is open to members of the University of Cambridge. The award is for an original verse composition in any form, of 500 lines or less. She currently has a two-year grant from the

Australia Council The Australia Council for the Arts, commonly known as the Australia Council, is the country's official arts council, serving as an arts funding and advisory body for the Government of Australia. The council was announced in 1967 as the Austra ...

Themes and inspiration

Ryan's poetry has been compared, by poet

Dorothy Hewett Dorothy Coade Hewett (21 May 1923 – 25 August 2002) was an Australian playwright, poet and author, and a romantic feminist icon. In writing and in her life, Hewett was an experimenter. As her circumstances and beliefs changed, she progressed ...

, with

Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath (; October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. She is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for two of her published collections, ''The ...

, and Debra Zott, in her review of ''Hothouse'', agrees, saying that "certainly, there are n Ryan's poetrythe mythic underpinnings one finds in Plath's poetry, as well as that quality of imbuing the personal with highly dramatised mythic proportions" and that "it is no secret that Ryan has been influenced by Plath". However, she argues that "the very mention of Plath's name shapes, and threatens to place limits on, the reader's experience of Ryan's poetry", that "Tracy Ryan's poetry does not need the Plath myth to prop it up". In 2001, Ryan said the following about her writing:

I don’t adhere to any particular school of thought, except in the broadest sense that my writing is inextricably bound up with my feminism. This would be the only real connector between my books. I am interested in trying to find ways in which language may be interrupted, disrupted and rejigged for feminist purposes (among others). Usually this attempt would arise from something in either my personal life or the world around me. My home state is currently enacting a legal clamp-down on women, with regard to street prostitution—passing laws that restrict women’s movements and rights to occupy space. Though such factors are often what ‘provokes’ me into a poem, the poem equally draws life off other books (like most poets, I spend a lot of time reading). I work by a kind of principle of immersion in particular poets at particular times.

Awards and nominations

*1987 Mattara Poetry Prize, Winner *1994

Western Australian Premier's Book Awards The Western Australian Premier's Book Awards is an annual book award provided by the Government of Western Australia, and managed by the State Library of Western Australia. History and format Annual literary awards were inaugurated by the Wes ...

Prize for Poetry: Shortlisted for ''Killing Delilah'' *1995 T. A. G. Hungerford Award for Fiction: Shortlisted for ''Vamp'' *1996 John Bray Poetry Award,

Adelaide Festival The Adelaide Festival of Arts, also known as the Adelaide Festival, an arts festival, takes place in the South Australian capital of Adelaide in March each year. Started in 1960, it is a major celebration of the arts and a significant cultural ...

: Shortlisted for ''Killing Delilah'' *1996

Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication ...

: Poems on the Underground short poem competition: Joint winner *1997 National Book Council Banjo Award, Commended *1998 Western Australian Premier’s Book Award, Shortlisted *2000

Prize for Poetry: Winner for ''The Willing Eye'' *2007 Trudie Graham Award for Memoir, Winner *2008 Age Book of the Year Award (poetry), Shortlisted *2009 Australian Book Review Poetry Prize, Winner *2011

Prize for Poetry: Winner for ''The Argument''

Works

Poetry

*''Killing Delilah'' (1994, Fremantle Arts Centre Press) *''Intensities of Blue'' (1995, Folio, with John Kinsella) *''Bluebeard in Drag'' (1996, Fremantle Arts Centre Press) *''Slant'' (1997, rempress) *''The Willing Eye'' (1999, Fremantle Arts Centre Press) *''ex opere operato'' (2000, vagabond) *''Hothouse'' (2002, Fremantle Arts Centre Press) *''bloc notes'' (2007, equipage) *''Scar Revision'' (2008, Fremantle Press) *''The Argument'' (2011, Fremantle Press) * ''Unearthed'' (2013, Fremantle Press)Fremantle Press
* ''The Water Bearer'' (2018, Fremantle Press)

Novels

*''Vamp'' (1997, Fremantle Arts Centre Press) *''Jazz Tango'' (2002, Fremantle Arts Centre Press) *''Sweet'' (2008, Fremantle Press)

Edited

*''Fremantle Poets 1: New Poets''

Plays

*''Smith Street'' (2001, three-act play, produced at University of Western Australia, with John Kinsella) *''Strike!'' (2023, for production at the Southwark Playhouse, Spring, 2023)

References

Sources

Accessed: 14 May 2008 * ttp://www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/stories/2008/2159225.htm Geoff Page reviews ''Scar Revision'' by Tracy Ryan, on ''The Book Show'', ABC-Radio National, 11 February 2008Accessed: 14 May 2008
Ryan at AustLit
Accessed: 14 May 2008
Tracy Ryan: Author
Accessed: 14 May 2008
Tracy Ryan Manuscripts at the University of Western Australia
Accessed: 14 May 2008
Fremantle Press : Books : Unearthed by Tracy Ryan
Accessed: 8 September 2013

External links

Tracy Ryan
her website.
Mutually Said: Poets Vegan Anarchist Pacifist
the blog that she shares with John Kinsella.
Fremantle Press, Authors, Tracy Ryan
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ryan, Tracy 1964 births Living people Australian poets Writers from Western Australia Academics of the University of East Anglia Fellows of Robinson College, Cambridge Australian women novelists Australian women poets