Ryan Fitzpatrick is U of A’s 2024–25 writer-in-residence

Ryan Fitzpatrick, a poet and academic with four published poetry books to his name, is the 2024–25 writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta.

The university accepts applications for the residency program every year. Run by the department of English and film studies, the program provides successful applicants with time to focus on their writing projects and opportunities for community engagement.

A born-and-raised Calgarian, Fitzpatrick began his writing journey in his hometown. He completed both his Bachelor’s of English and Master’s in English at the University of Calgary. During university, he started writing poetry and got involved with the local literary scene.

After he finished his master’s degree, Fitzpatrick left the stampede city for British Columbia (B.C), where he completed a PhD in English at Simon Fraser University. He then moved to Toronto to pursue another post-doctoral fellowship, but got stuck in the city because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I was trying to get out of Toronto, back to this side of the continent,” he explained. Fitzpatrick was attracted to Edmonton because of the city’s “burgeoning literary and poetry scene.”

Fitzpatrick has published four poetry books since 2007. His debut book, Fake Math, was inspired by “flarf” poetry, where one tries to write “deliberately bad” poetry. The “messy, weird book” was a product of Fitzpatrick trying to figure himself out during life post-grad.

Most recently, Fitzpatrick published Sunny Ways in 2023. Although he wrote the book in Toronto, he based it off a manuscript he wrote in Calgary that attempted at “ecological poetics.”

“I thought it was a cute idea to write a handbook to extinct animals, so things you can’t find. I pulled it out of the drawer when the climate strikes were going on right before the pandemic.”

“You should chase the weird threads you’re interested in” Fitzpatrick says

Most people think poetry should be about universal feelings, Fitzpatrick said. He disagrees.

“You should chase the weird threads you’re interested in. It should be super particular. The people who connect to it will find it. The universal will come out of it in a different way.”

Fitzpatrick cited a common saying among poets: “everything you do is research for the poem.” He described how poetry lets him process the weird threads he becomes interested in.

“I think it allows you to think about things you don’t entirely understand yet, and start to answer the questions through the writing itself.”

Fitzpatrick plans to tackle three projects during his residency, including a new poetry book that explores the relationship between country music and both music and poetic improvisation. He’s also working on a non-fiction book, which he described as a “book-length essay in fragments about asexuality.”

“Thinking through, not just what is asexuality? But also, what are the theoretical and political questions that are wrapped up in that?”

For his third project, Fitzpatrick plans to write a book about Millican-Ogden, the neighbourhood he grew up in.

“It’s often described as a small town that got annexed by Calgary, built to service the Canadian Pacific Railroad’s repair shop (CPR) that’s still there to this day.”

Fitzpatrick wants to explore the intersection of industry with land use, zoning, and how cities are built.

The residency program not only provides Fitzpatrick time to work on his projects. He’s looking to plan poetry events within the department over the next few months. As well, students can go to him for writing and poetry help.

“Some students are further along in the process of getting involved in the writing world. Some just need to talk about their poems. I’m happy to help students on whatever level they come to me at.”