[2] In 2015, Ryan published an autobiographical novel called There’s A Man With a Gun Over There based on his experiences in the US Army as a detective and translator investigating black marketing in Germany during the Vietnam era.
In this novel, Ryan, trained as poet and drafted into the military, is a kind of innocent abroad as he learns the very high price of essentially becoming a fascist for the American Empire and the remnants of Nazi Germany.
Nominated by its publisher for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, There’s a Man With a Gun Over There is about what could happen to anyone in the US Army, and a cautionary tale about America’s War Machine.
Poet, screenwriter, playwright, and winner of a “Genius” Award from the MacArthur Foundation, Naomi Wallace comments that in reading the novel she is astonished by "the battle of consciousness Ryan has with himself concerning right, wrong, war, lies: all are in continuous flux and deeply alive."
For six years, Ryan was the lyricist for the northern California rock-and-roll band The Thugz and wrote many of the songs on their two CD’s released by Puffin records—Goin’ To Town (2009) and Peace of Mind (2011).
[4] Ryan also founded firestarter press, which has published eccentric artifacts by writers including Abby Frucht, Mark Strand, Tobias Wolff, Fred Chappell, and John Koethe.