Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, often both, Ryan Rickrode’s stories feature striking images and memorable characters. In his shorter works, Rickrode has written about runaway dogs, roofing work, the historical Jesus, tornadoes, and bets made by 12-year-olds. What unites his fiction is his interest in characters wavering between strength and despair. He believes that writing fiction is a way of asking questions and pursuing answers.
Rickrode is the author of The Mountains May Depart (forthcoming 2026 from Unsolicited Press) and Accidents Will Happen: Essays & Photos. He received his MFA in fiction and creative nonfiction from the University of Montana in 2013 and has been writing and teaching in Central Pennsylvania ever since. As a senior lecturer in English at Messiah University he teaches courses on creative writing, composition, and literature. As a writer he’s interested in the ways narratives shape people, the ways in which faith and art can overlap, and the ways in which familiar stories like fairy tales can be made new once again.
His shorter work has appeared in various places, including Dappled Things, The Windhover, and The Cresset has appeared in Dappled Things, The Cresset, Lalitamba, Fathom Magazine, Identity Theory, The Common, The Good Men Project, The South Carolina Review, Still Point Arts Quarterly and Bright Bones: An Anthology of Contemporary Montana Writing.
Rickrode’s first novel, The Mountains May Depart, is forthcoming from Unsolicitied Press in 2026. Set in Missoula, Montana, the novel is an exploration of grief and forgiveness. It was a 2019 Finalist for the Clay Reynolds Novella Prize and a 2020 Honorable Mention for the Landmark Prize for Fiction. An excerpt from the book appeared in The Windhover in 2021. ♦
Ryan Rickrode 