Bio
Biography
A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Ryan is a recipient of a literary grant from Oregon Regional Arts and a prison teaching grant from Idaho Humanities Council. His novel, Down in the River, was released January 6, 2014 from Slant.
His stories are published in Antioch Review, Image, Crab Orchard Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, and elsewhere.
Ryan has taught undergraduate creative writing at five universities and colleges. He teaches advanced fiction writing at Boise State University.
Down in the River's First Reviews
Paste Magazine's interview with Ryan Blacketter is forthcoming. Recent "Drinks With" interviewees include David Sedaris, Dolly Parton, and Natalie Merchant.
From Fiction Writers Review: "The novel's central action is as ghastly and morbid as anything Poe thought up, maybe more so because of its hyperrealism--stealing a corpse from its grave ... And what makes this novel so warm and heartbreaking despite its gruesome material is that all the characters are driven by their love and concern for each other."
Crime Fiction Lover: "This is not a conventional crime novel, but one which, even in its darker moments, deals sensitively with a young man raging against authority."
Temporary Knucksline (Southern New Hampshire U's MFA Blog): "Toward the end of the journey, in the town that forced his family to leave, Lyle spots something he'd long admired--the statue of a cowboy. From a thousand angles, over many years, Lyle had seen the giant man. Even as a small boy he liked the toughness in his stone face. The cowboy's mouth was open and one shoulder was raised. There was justice in him. In the midst of an outlaw scramble, Rosa tells Lyle what the reader already knows, 'You're a good person.'"
"[Blacketter] has a marvelous eye for the emotional textures of the most commonplace experience, the kind that familiarity makes almost subliminal." --Marilynne Robinson, author of Gilead and winner of the Pulitzer
"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. Down in the River will grip you by the collar and not let go. This is a brave first novel from a writer to be watched." --Mitch Wieland, author of Willy Slater's Lane and God's Dogs
"I can't remember when I've liked a character as much as I've liked 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. A thunderous debut, and the beginning of what will surely be a breathtaking career." --Pinckney Benedict, author of Town Smokes and Miracle Boy
"Some readers won't be able to see past the darkness in Blacketter's novel, but it is in fact shot through with an aching compassion ... It might be the freshest novel I've seen in a decade." --Gregory Wolfe, author of Beauty Will Save the World
"Blacketter's prose is paired with the torque of a plot that lives and moves like an indomitable engine. This difficult and necessary story is inbreathed with a ferocity that leaves the reader shaken. In the end, through Blacketter's sure hand, we encounter a surprisingly intimate brush with our own desire for peace of the soul, and in so doing, are drawn toward the ineffable mystery of how our contact with others inevitably carries with it a sense of infinite gravity." --Shann Ray, author of American Masculine and winner of the American Book Award
"Ryan Blacketter's Down in the River is an impressive debut novel that effectively tackles themes of mental illness and grief." --David Gutowski, founding editor of Largehearted Boy
