Have you ever met someone who was poetry? I met Ryan Artes serendipitously when I was in my last year at university, and we realized with a start that we shared two very close friends, even though we had somehow never crossed paths – until we did. Fifteen years later, when he told me he published a book of poetry, it made perfect sense.
His first collection of poetry, “After Midnight”, came out in Spring 2021.
Note: This interview was originally published on “Two Drops of Ink: A Literary Blog” which got discontinued in 2022. As such, I took the liberty of revisiting the text and decided to publish it here, because of the insights and author experience it shares.
It’s the first in a series of author interviews I will be sharing. Thanks for tuning in, and if you have an author you’d like to see featured here (or if you are an author who is interested in being interviewed), don’t hesitate to reach out!
A Refreshing take on poetry
When I read After Midnight, one of the things that stood out to me was how much I enjoyed it. If you love poetry, that may seem like an obvious conclusion, but my relationship to poetry has always been more challenging. When I brought this up, Ryan confided that he also found poetry too inaccessible at times, requiring a lot of thought and being full of obscure, niche references that leave most readers feeling like confused outsiders.
This complexity doesn’t exist in Ryan’s writing – which is fascinating to me given that he tackles concepts such as identity, belonging, and love. To him, that’s one of the beauties of poetry: it can look like a traditional narrative, but it doesn’t have to, and it can accommodate multiple languages and words in a way other mediums cannot.
“I have been trying to have conversations about my identity with my (white) family for 20 years, but it has always been on their terms. After Midnight is my way of starting this conversation on my terms.”
When I commented on how seamless it was to read through his poems, Ryan laughed. Just as it takes longer to write less – Mark Twain had it right when he said, “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” – it took a lot of work for his first poetry collection to come across as effortless.
“After Midnight” – Concept
This first poetry collection features poems written between midnight and 6am, when Ryan couldn’t sleep due to insomnia. In fact, the whole design was inspired by the digital alarm clock in his childhood bedroom that had red letters and numbers. Back then, he shared his bedroom with siblings, so his only source of light to write was that alarm clock.
The order of the poems is very intentional. Ryan first tried a chronological approach, but that didn’t fit. Then, he realized that he could present them by month and day – a seasonal format. He believes that this is the secret to the collection coming across as effortless, as the content follows what our subconscious identifies as a natural cycle.
It was important to him to get this right, as his poems tackle a lot of issues that are complex and can be overwhelming. Finding an optimal “flow” was part of his way to make the theme of identity seem easy and seamless and cool.
After midnight – Behind the Scenes
A first printing of After Midnight was of 400 copies. This is a strategic number, because if you print more, the manuscript becomes ineligible for several awards. That’s why so many authors do a second printing.
Speaking of awards, it is a constant process to look for and apply to them (I didn’t even know you could apply; I assumed you’d be nominated by some feat of magic and as a sign of your work being disseminated far and wide).
Ironically, a common response Ryan has received is that his content is “too complex”. If it was about being adopted OR queer OR brown, it would stand a better chance of receiving an award, but having all these themes together is “too much” – which is in many ways a perfect reflection of Ryan’s experience and the very reason why he wanted to write about all these intersecting elements.
Identity: Messy, glorious, and disrupted
When it comes to identity, Ryan wants to affirm, challenge, and disrupt our notions of the term.
He went through an identity crisis in his early 20s. He was changing, fast, in terms of his physical appearance, his understanding of identity, and even his clothing style. As someone with Indian origins, his colour of skin fluctuates a lot depending on the time of the year and how much time he spent in the sun. This also affects how people perceive him, and which race they assume and project onto him.
Then, there’s the question of his identity in the context of his family’s identity. But, would that be his birth family, back in India? Or his adopted family in the US?
Over the years, he has felt his identity morph and shift, and often downright defy definition. One of the reasons he considers himself so multi-ethnic and multi-racial is because of the interplay between his perception of self, his layered identities based on his life journey, and due to the identities presumed of him over the course of a lifetime.
Does that sound confusing? That’s because it is.
Ryan doesn’t offer a wrapped-up narrative. He wants what you read to sit with you – even if it’s uncomfortable, and feels unfinished. This is so that you have to take what you read forward, rather than just putting it away mentally and physically when you’re done reading.
Other key themes: Love & Friendship
Taught about the ways boys should and were allowed to love based in violence, Ryan’s poems speak to dramatic friendships, the relationships that shaped him. He wants to hold space where space was never held for him; for young queer kids to have something to turn to when they are struggling with so many unanswered questions.
This is also why Ryan is so intent on creating a community, and passing on the positive energy he never got. As a supportive adult who can be a model for what adult life might look like, beyond traditional heterosexual models, Ryan always encourages people to reach out if they need to (and if you want to reach out to him, his email is at the end of this interview).
Another take on the writing process
Ryan’s writing process is ever developing and ever changing, though one habit that has stuck with him is that he always records at what time he starts and stops writing.
In the lead up to After Midnight, he stopped smoking and drinking. “This has brought up memories I haven’t had in a long time, all because my senses aren’t dulled by substances anymore,” he shares.
There are a lot of steps that go into writing, and Ryan admits that when he first reads his poetry out loud, it always feels a bit like he is falling apart – but then he realizes it wasn’t that bad. That’s empowering.
Now, Ryan no longer writes at night. He has brought his words and his writing process into the daytime, because he feels he no longer needs to hide it. It also reflects an evolution of his mindset, as he acknowledges the importance of rest – giving his brain and body a chance to relax and heal from daily use – even if sleep may remain elusive. The only exception he makes is if his mind is spinning, and writing is the only way to slow it down. He can do this, because, “The words are mine. I won’t lose them! And if I do, I’ll always find new ones to tell my story.”
As he performs and shares pieces, parts that people relate to and the types of people that his words resonate with sometimes changes his perception of his work. The identity and adoption elements, in particular, bring out the commonalities and universality of themes.
Ryan is also a staunch believer that writing is a way to start manifesting the things you ask of the universe. A way to putting dreams into motion. And journaling? Everyone can do that.
Advice to writers
In today’s day and age – both with the growth of the virtual space and the pandemic – there are many, many free author and writing events available. That was Ryan’s turning point in his author journey: he started going to artist talks by friends of his, and signing up to online events. He always asked questions about where creatives found inspiration.
Two answers stuck with him –
The first came from Regie Cabico, who said “You just have to write your truths of the day, and do what you can to start writing. A list of 50 things that make you angry, a letter, whatever works. Find any prompt you can to get the words flowing.”
Then, as if to reinforce that message, Rajiv Mohabir said that “You have to get out of your own way and start writing your truths.”
Thinking back, Ryan agrees but adds a caveat: “You will be hiding your own true story from even yourself until you figure out your direction. It’s that simple.”
He also believes that durable friendships that you invest in will propel you. Circumstances of connection may be random, but choosing to stay connected makes all the difference. This is true of all friendships, but echoes advice from other writers around the importance of finding your writing community.
Not just an author: Starting a publishing company
Ryan didn’t plan to start his own publishing company, and actively tried not to go down that path, “to avoid the Marc Jacobs effect of “Marc Jacobs by Marc Jacobs for Marc Jacobs” as he put it. But in the end, he wanted to have complete control over how he presents himself when it came to his poetry, and he realized he also wanted to empower others to take control of their own voices and words. To this end, he is establishing a publishing company as a landing place for his creative projects, named after the street he grew up on in Baltimore.
So, what next?
Since our conversation in January 2021, Ryan implemented a do-it-yourself (DIY) Master of Fine Arts (MFA) writing program of his own design and through that process has created an immense body of work.
He began with All the Poems I Never Wrote, a compilation of what he describes as “A burst of ten years of writer’s block that finally came through and are about me speaking my truth.” After that, 18 more projects poured out, for a total of 8 poetry and 11 prose projects.
Ryan’s DIY MFA was recognized by the MFA Seminars, and was featured in an article published in May 2023, “DIY MFA!”.
Today, Ryan is pursuing traditional and nontraditional pathways towards conventional and unconventional methods of publication, embracing all the entrepreneurial uncertainties and opportunities that exist when you’re a writer in today’s day and age.
To connect with Ryan, follow @ryanartespoet and @theadopteeopenmic on Instagram, or reach out at ryan.artes@gmail.com. Ryan hosts The Adoptee Open Mic, a monthly virtual event for Black and Brown adoptees only, on the first Tuesday of every month from September to May. Ryan hosts letter writing classes to support his activism and creative work, including Letter Writing as a Spiritual Practice, for everyone, and Letters to Our Homes, for Black and Brown adoptees only. Read Ryan’s work here: https://linktr.ee/ryanartes.