Ryan Edel

So what is it that really goes on inside Ryan's mind?  No one really knows.  He writes fiction, and he seems to speak it, too.  We aren't entirely certain when he is serious, or when he is trying to convince us of stories that simply aren't true.*

The 12Writing Team

* Yeah, you can tell that Ryan wrote this part. We actually know when he's making stuff up. --Emily and Jess

Ryan's Dream: A Platonic Union of Dinosaurs, Writing, and Pure Awesome.

Ryan is a Ph.D. student in Creative Writing and Rhetoric at Illinois State University. He also earned his MFA (with a concentration in fiction) from Johns Hopkins in May 2010. So far, he's spent four years teaching undergraduate writing courses, and he's looking forward to many, many more. Assuming, of course, the university hiring committees never figures out that he writes science fiction in his spare time.

He started 12Writing in February of 2008 as a way to gain some teaching experience and to share some of what he knew about writing.  But that was before grad school.  He didn't know it then, but he barely knew anything about writing, and even less about teaching.  Which is why 12Writing has been such a fun project - taking something you love and then sharing it with others while you're still experiencing that newness of it every day, that creates and odd sense of unbalance.  And that's exactly what you need in writing - a constant exploration of what's new, of what you can express, of what you can feel.  (At least, this is what he is telling you in the third person.  Because you know darn well that he's writing his own bio...)

Ryan has previously published in the Writer's Digest Short Short Story competition, and upcoming works will appear in the Grassroots Writing Research Journal and Eunoia Review. He also spent some time as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division.

The 12Writing Team

12Writing: Write Your Inspiration