Ryan Ruff Smith is the Tickner Writing Fellow at Gilman School. He has published both fiction and literary nonfiction in journals such as Ploughshares, Subtropics, Green Mountains Review, and New Ohio Review. One of his short stories, "The Disturbance," was listed in the Best American Short Stories 2017. Ryan's a native of Minneapolis, MN. He holds an MFA from the University of Florida and a Ph.D. in Creative Writing from the University of Cincinnati. //

In Episode #29 of the Path to Follow Podcast, Jake and Ryan discuss the process of creative writing, Ryan's short story "The Disturbance," ideas drawn from experience, reasons humans enjoy storytelling, the continual process of revision, the challenges of beginning a story versus ending one, "showing versus telling," the short fiction of Flannery O'Connor, Anton Chekhov, and John Cheever, the Writers at Work Series, Paragon (Gilman's award-winning literary magazine), and Ryan's book recommendation: The Collected Stories by Grace Paley. //

Enjoy the episode? Please subscribe, share, and follow the Path to Follow Podcast on all platforms: https://linktr.ee/Pathtofollowpod​​. //

Many thanks to the all-powerful Cesare Ciccanti for his work on production.