Tommy Orange
MacArthur Fellow, bestselling novelist and author of There There and Wandering Stars
Patrick Ryan
New York Times-bestselling author of the novel Buckeye
Photo Credit: Fred Blair
Patrick Ryan is the editor of the literary magazine One Story and author of the New York Times-bestselling novel and Read With Jenna pick, Buckeye. He has also written award-winning short stories, including the collections Send Me and The Dream Life of Astronauts. In his warm, engaging talks, Ryan explores history, identity, and imagination, leaving audiences inspired to see their own stories with fresh clarity and meaning.
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About Patrick Ryan
The acclaimed novelist of Buckeye and award-winning short story collections, Patrick Ryan illuminates how ordinary lives reflect extraordinary times. His most recent novel and instant New York Times bestseller, Buckeye, has been praised as “a small-town novel of epic proportions” (Tom Perrotta), weaving together the lives of two Midwestern families across generations, from World War II through the late twentieth century. Set in the vividly rendered fictional town of Bonhomie, Ohio, Buckeye explores love, loss, and the shifting tides of American life in the second half of the 20th century with unforgettable characters and piercing emotional insight. Buckeye was selected as a Barnes and Nobles National Book Club Pick for September of 2025, a Read with Jenna pick, and an Indy Next pick.
A sought-after speaker, Ryan brings warmth, wit, and a deep sense of humanity to his talks. He shares with audiences not only the stories behind his novels and short fiction, but also insights into the art of writing, and the evolving landscape of contemporary literature. Whether addressing students, library patrons, or writers, Ryan invites audiences into the imaginative worlds of his fiction while also discussing history, creativity, and storytelling.
Ryan is also the author of two story collections, The Dream Life of Astronauts—named one of the Best Books of the Year by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, LitHub, Refinery29, and Electric Literature, and longlisted for The Story Prize—and Send Me. His short fiction has been widely anthologized, including in The Best American Short Stories and Tales of Two Cities.
Ryan is a graduate of Florida State University and Bowling Green State University. He serves as Editor-in-Chief of the literary magazine One Story and was the former associate editor at Granta. Ryan has been a writer since he was 16 years old and currently lives in New York City.
Contact us for more information about booking Patrick Ryan for your next event.
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Praise for Patrick Ryan
Praise for Buckeye
Filled with wit and emotion on every page, this is a stirring paean to the joys and sorrows of family.
— Publishers Weekly, starred reviewBuckeye offers just about everything I look for in a great story: a vivid setting, historical sweep, rich characters who break your heart even as they make you laugh and all of this in abundance.
— Richard Russo, author of Empire Falls and the North Bath trilogyEnhanced with a hazy sentimentality, Ryan’s quiet drama conjures moral complexities behind the facade of carefully crafted mid-century lives.
— The Washington Post[A] luminous and tender 20th-century saga of wounded souls and small-town secrets.
— The GuardianOmniscient, sweeping, almost defiantly sentimental, Buckeye is a reminder of the deep pleasure of following a cast of characters over their entire lives, through births, deaths, marriages, tragedies and, in this case, hard-won reconciliations. . . The author clearly loves these people, and he makes the safe bet that you will, too.
— The New York Times Book Review -
Books by Patrick Ryan
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Featured Title
Buckeye: A Read with Jenna Pick
“This mesmerizing, tender novel follows two Ohio families from the 1920s through the ’60s as they find and lose love and loved ones through what one character aptly calls ‘the unraveling of time.’”—People, “Must-Read Books of Fall”
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