Hello! I'm Ryan - editor, designer, writer, & general literary busybody for hire.
Based in Glasgow, I’ve worked in and around Scotland’s literary sector for over 15 years, producing publications, managing projects and running events. Clients include 404 Ink, Taproot press, Freight Books, The Saltire Society, Paisley Book Festival, and the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
Starting out staunchly DIY, between 2009 and 2016, I produced eight issues of The Queen’s Head, a literary zine of speculative prose and experimental poetry. Then, from 2014 and 2016, I edited fiction for The Island Review, an online magazine dedicated to all things archipelago. Most recently, in 2018 I created Queer Words Project Scotland, a mentoring scheme for emerging queer writers, and co-edited two associated anthologies, We Were Always Here (2019) and Fierce Salvage (2025).
After a decade of freelance design alongside a printer and a bookseller, I now specialise in publication design, and have designed covers and typeset interiors for over 100 publications, collaborating with publishers local and international, across anthologies, novels, poetry collections and photo books.
I’m part of the editorial collective behind Gutter, Scotland’s leading literary magazine. Since joining the mag as a reviewer in 2014, I’ve since mucked in as reviews editor, social media manager, and occasional fiction reader and editor. I’m currently the publication’s resident designer, meaning I’ve been the invisible hand behind the typesetting, cover design and production of every issue from #20 onwards.
Working with OneRen, Paisley’s sports and culture charity, I designed the event identity for Paisley Book Festival 2023 & 2024, responding to themes of ‘Remake & Rebel’ and ‘Imagine Something New’.
My first story publication, a queer apocalyptic farce, appeared in 2014’s Out There: An Anthology of Scottish LGBT Writing. Since then my work has appeared in New Writing Scotland, Gutter, F[r]iction, Glasgow Review of Books, and beyond. In 2020 I self-published Minor Mishaps, a pamphlet that collected various microfiction and poetry publications from various now-defunct websites. In 2016, I shortlisted for the Scottish Book Trust’s new writers award, and in 2022 was awarded a place on the Trust’s Debut Lab.
My debut collection of short speculative fiction, One Man’s Trash, was published by Lethe Press in 2021. It’s currently out of print, and looking for a new home.
My most recent publication is An Honourable Place (2024) a collaborative storytelling game about cults, apocalypses and symbols. I’m currently seeking representation for Leftovers, a dark comedy about hypocrisy, climate collapse, and haunted vegetables.
