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, tornados, 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 a writer from a central Pennsylvania. He’s a husband, a dog owner, and an English professor. He earned his MFA from the University of Montana in 2013 and since then has been writing and teaching in Pennsylvania. His work 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.
In addition to writing, Rickrode also teaches college-level courses in English and creative writing, including writing workshops, professional development courses for creative writing majors, and courses on the historical development of modern genres like literary journalism, memoir, and the short story, as well as introductory writing courses. ♦
Ryan Rickrode 