Ryan Van Winkle

Background

Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Van Winkle graduated from Syracuse University, in journalism and political science. He is now based in Edinburgh, Scotland. After becoming the Scottish Poetry Library’s first Reader in Residence, he now works as Poet in Residence for Edinburgh City Libraries. Winkle's first collection of poems, Tomorrow We Will Live Here (2010), won the Crashaw Prize and was published by Salt. His work has appeared in The American Poetry Review, The Guardian, Scotland on Sunday, Poetry New Zealand, Poetry Scotland, New Writing Scotland, Gutter, AGNI, Northwords Now, Poetry Daily, The Missing Slate, 3:AM Magazine and Carcanet's Oxford Anthology of New Poets in 2010 Van Winkle also hosts podcasts for the Scottish Poetry Library and the Scottish Book Trust, and a cross-genre arts show Culture Laser. A number of these podcasts are being published as transcripts by the Prairie Schooner. He has also performed at a number of literature festivals around the world, including the London Literature Festival, the Wordstorm Festival in Darwin, the Edinburgh International Book Festival, the Melbourne Fringe Festival and the Woodford Folk Festival.

Van Winkle toured his poetry/theatre piece Red, Like Our Room Used to Feel, a one-to-one poetry reading set in a constructed bedroom, with music from Ragland. The Guardian called it an "intimate and haunting" piece. Time Out described it as "simple, yearning and effective". Australian Book Review wrote of the show as "simple and consuming – as if you’ve suddenly brushed shoulders with someone wearing the perfume of an ex-lover or absent family member." The work won good reviews at the Edinburgh Festival.

Van Winkle was awarded a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship in 2012 and tutors for The Poetry School online.

Van Winkle edited a poetry anthology called This Room is Waiting (2014, Freight Books). The collection features work from UK and Iraqi poets.