Meet Ryan Walraven - dipity Community Spotlight Q&A Interview no. 24
learn more about writer Ryan Walraven's work through dipity's global interview monthly spotlight feature
Introduction
Ryan Walraven is a writer and physicist originally from Baltimore, MD. His work has taken him on many adventures, from UMBC in Maryland where he wrote for their newspaper the Retriever Weekly, to Ainan-cho and Kyoto in Japan where he taught English in Japanese schools. He later moved to Honolulu to attend UH Manoa and study neutrinos, nature's most confusing fundamental particle so far. After a postdoc in Chicago-land, he now lives in Oakland with his wife and two cats, Jiffy and Nyx. Dr. Walraven's writing has been featured with TL;DR Press, Bandit Fiction, Blood Knife, and Ripples in Space, and he is the founder of Strange Quark Press, an indie magazine for science-themed writing that is mostly run by cats.
Descending Toward the Depths of the Water
I’m a breaking cloud, bloated with mist and shadow, dragging tufts of rain through the air, where once imaginary creatures flew, now left to fall and blend into the waves, forgotten, forever. Sea foam caresses my face. The radio static of surf, not intense enough, to quell this melancholy. I too long for cold water, the quietude of depth. Pushed by the drying winds that sculpt my shrinking whispers into gasps of formless dust, escaping the barren valleys where I was born. I see my face upon the surface, pale and puffy, fractured by the waves a wrinkled shadow amid the ripples as I tumble near the crumbling cliffs. Soon the waves and I will meet, the whispered wind will fall away, and I will be absorbed, aswirl in sunken depths, where finally I can forget what it was to be a cloud and wish to rain upon the darkened lands.
D.E.L - Bloom
Q: What is the backstory of this poem?
“Descending Toward the Depths of the Water” was inspired by my years of living as a student in Hawaii, and the melancholy that is a ubiquitous part of the grad school experience. In Hawaii, especially, the contrast is enhanced between blue skies and placid oceans, and the inner turmoil and pressure of spending time in the lab, and needing to succeed and write that voluminous dissertation. Oahu itself is a magical land, full of chirping frogs, colorful birds, and abandoned structures left by the native Hawaiian peoples, and yet also a modern metropolis of concrete, grit, and grunge. Toward the end of my studies there, I experienced a difficult period, creatively, financially, and personally, having had a recent breakup and a falling out with a friend, and also toiling through the final stages of my degree. The poem describes that sensation of falling and exhaustion, of feeling lost and wanting a deep place of calm and respite, despite the blue skies and beaming sun.
Q: What were your most recent publications?
I penned a short article for Blood Knife Magazine called “A Ghost in the Academy” about AI in academia in 2023, and describing professionals who are in denial about its impact on students. It feels like the question of AI has only grown more enormous since then, and we have no idea as a society how to deal with it. Thinking about that led me to the concept behind my story “The Great Erase,” about an AI that wants to erase the entire internet to rescue humanity, and my new website EraseTheInternet.org. It’s sort of a joke, and sort of isn’t depending what time of day you ask me about it, and whether I’ve had coffee or not.
Q: Where can others find more of your work?
TL;DR Press has been a constant writing support group, a source of friends, and a place where I’ve published some short stories, including “The Cat Who Drank Too Much Coffee,” which placed in their flash fiction content in 2023, and “Electric Gnome” was featured in Hope: An Anthology of Hopeful Stories and Poetry.
Bandit Fiction published my short “How to Unravel Reality in Seven Easy Steps,” which is also based in Hawaii. Finally, I’ve tried several times to get published in Taco Bell Quarterly because I admire what they’re doing, with no success yet, though one of my Taco Bell themed stories “Look Alive, Live Mas” did find a home in The Daily Drunk’s Mall Rats anthology.
Q: What else do you do outside of the writing community? Are there any hobbies you’d like to share?
I’m a physicist and was previously a physics instructor at Illinois Tech, where I really enjoyed getting to know the students and sharing the collective scientific mythos. I became excited about physics for the usual reasons in the late 90s: an early interest in Star Trek and space travel, enjoyment of shows like Cosmos and 3-2-1 Contact every time they were shown in class at school, and a hopeless idealism about string theory that would lead me down many dark rabbit holes. Physics leads you to some simple but profound questions like “How does the universe work?” and “Why is it so empty out there?” that can be both scary and fascinating. I have moved on from academia for now, but continue to find inspiration from my particle physics studies for short stories and novels. I also love to hike, backpack, and spend time in nature, and can’t wait to be among the redwoods and fungi again this summer!
Q: When did you begin writing? OR What or who sparked and inspired your writing journey?
My creative journey started when I was a kid, when I was lonely and would imagine stories and fantasy worlds full of castles, dragons, knights, and magical crystals amid the post-industrial suburban landscape of the East Coast. I loved to draw and sketch and write short things, starting with a journal I kept online, but I was discouraged from going to art school or even taking art classes in college when meeting with my advisors. Thankfully, I had a wonderful high school art teacher, Mr. Pittman, and many great creative writing teachers at UMBC in their English department. I started writing short stories and poems there, began my first novel by participating in NaNoWriMo, and had my first paid publications via their student newspaper The Retriever Weekly. Since then, I have continued dreaming up magical worlds and far off planets in my journals and stories, and look forward to sharing more in the future.
Q: What advice would you give aspiring poets, authors, or fellow writers in the community?
Writing success isn’t about selling a million copies or writing a best-seller. It’s a journey about sharing ideas with the world, and being our authentic selves. The universe has cultivated these stories, these ideas, within us that are seeking a doorway out into the world, to escape the turbulent chaos of our imaginations and become something tangible. We can be those doorways. Keep writing and sharing your stuff even if it gets rejected.
Q: What are you currently reading? AND What book(s) would you recommend to others right now?
I’m currently reading Ursula K. Leguin’s Hainish Cycle, which is wonderful, but I would recommend her lesser known book The Tombs of Atuan, which is part of the Earthsea series.
Q: What was the last movie or TV show you watched or recommend others see in the community?
Everyone is probably aware of Severance by now, but if you have access to Apple TV, Dark Matter (2024) is an interesting Sci-Fi show that gives a fun perspective on doing physics in Chicago. I’ve heard the book is even better!
Q: Which poets, artists, or writers inspire you?
All of my writer friends at TL;DR Press are an inspiration, and it has been awesome to see several get publishing contracts this year, including Mia Moss, Sarah Hawthorn, and Joe Butler, who all helped found their magazine, and Lila Krishna (also from the group) who has a Substack [called] The India House List on Indian revolutionaries.
Q: What's your favorite memory, event, or moment as a writer, author, or artist thus far? AND Why?
Wayyy back in high school, in the days when the internet was young, our art teacher ran a unit on oil painting. I wasn’t a very experienced painter, but enjoyed the creative process, and decided to paint a scene of gloomy autumn woods. It proved challenging, especially with all the leaves of different colors, but I eventually got it done after a couple of months. Toward the end of class when we were all getting ready to graduate and go to college, I offered to donate it to the school, as they would occasionally keep paintings or drawings to hang on the walls. I always felt a bit embarrassed about it afterward, and imagined it wasn’t particularly good since my painting experience was very limited. A few years ago, some friends and I from the theater club caught up and agreed to go back for our 20th reunion, and I was surprised to find the painting still up on the wall and better than I remembered. It was great connecting with those friends again, who I got to know in the theater program there in school, and reminding myself that it’s easy to underestimate or forget our own contributions and creations.
Q: What's one of your favorite poems in existence?
Pablo Neruda was the first name that came to mind, and I particularly like his poem “Bird.”
Jahrund - Posterity of Stellar Wind
To Check Out More of Ryan Walraven’s Work
Circle back to some of his work mentioned above in this Q&A and check out his author website: www.ryanwalraven.com, and new project EraseTheInternet.org “that is inspired by our world’s troubles with social media, connectedness and disconnectedness, in an age of information over-abundance.”
Please Def Follow:
@drspacecase
on Instagram
@ryanwalraven
on Bluesky
Any other thoughts, comments, or shares after reading the interview?
[Interview Processed By VFORROW]
Thank you so much, Ryan Walraven, for sharing and submitting to Dipity Lit Mag! ~ Jazz Marie Kaur (Vevna Forrow).
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