Garry Ryan is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

writer. Best known for his Detective Lane series of

mystery novel Mystery is a fiction genre where the nature of an event, usually a murder or other crime, remains mysterious until the end of the story. Often within a closed circle of suspects, each suspect is usually provided with a credible motive and a re ...

s,"Murder and mayhem in Calgary; Author has always favoured reality over polite facade". ''

Calgary Herald The ''Calgary Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Publication began in 1883 as ''The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate, and General Advertiser''. It is owned by the Postmedia Network. History ''The C ...

'', November 14, 2013. he has also published works of

historical fiction Historical fiction is a literary genre in which a fictional plot takes place in the Setting (narrative), setting of particular real past events, historical events. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literatur ...

."Heroic female war pilots fly in the face of gender roles; Women flew dangerous WWII allied missions". ''

'', November 10, 2012. Ryan studied education at the

University of Calgary {{Infobox university , name = University of Calgary , image = University of Calgary coat of arms without motto scroll.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms , former ...

, and worked for over 30 years as a teacher in

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

's public school system. He retired from teaching in 2009. Although heterosexual,"Gay detective challenges stereotypes; Former teacher addressed discrimination creatively". ''

'', November 6, 2011. Ryan was inspired to make Detective Lane, the lead character in his mystery novels,

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

after witnessing the discrimination and

bullying Bullying is the use of force, coercion, Suffering, hurtful teasing, comments, or threats, in order to abuse, aggression, aggressively wikt:domination, dominate, or intimidate one or more others. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. On ...

that two of his students faced after coming out as gay. He has published ten Detective Lane novels to date. His novel The Lucky Elephant Restaurant won a Lambda Literary Award in the Gay Mystery category at the 19th Lambda Literary Awards in 2007. In 2009, Ryan was awarded Calgary's Freedom of Expression Award. He was a nominee for Smoked at the 23rd Lambda Literary Awards in 2011, for Malabarista at the 24th Lambda Literary Awards in 2012 and for Foxed at the 26th Lambda Literary Awards in 2014. Ryan has also published two novels to date in his ''Blackbirds'' series, a historical trilogy about Sharon Lacey, a female

aviator An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators because they a ...

serving in the

Air Transport Auxiliary The Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) was a British civilian organisation set up at the start of the Second World War with headquarters at White Waltham Airfield in Berkshire. The ATA ferried new, repaired and damaged military aircraft between fac ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Ryan teamed with Pages Books on Kensington to publish Corporation's First Annual Sausage Festival - (2018 - )

Works

Detective Lane Mysteries

*''Queen's Park'' (2004, ) *''The Lucky Elephant Restaurant'' (2006, ) *''A Hummingbird Dance'' (2008, ) *''Smoked'' (2010, ) *''Malabarista'' (2011, ) *''Foxed'' (2013, ) *''Glycerine'' (2014, ) *''Indiana Pulcinella'' (2016, ) *''Matanzas'' - (2017- ) *''Sea of Cortez'' - (2018 - )

Blackbirds Trilogy

*''Blackbirds'' (2012, ) *''Two Blackbirds'' (2014, )

Pages Books

*''Corporation’s First Annual Sausage Festival'' (2018 - )

References

External links

Garry Ryan
Canadian male novelists Canadian mystery writers Canadian historical novelists 21st-century Canadian novelists Writers from Calgary Lambda Literary Award winners Living people University of Calgary alumni 21st-century Canadian male writers Year of birth missing (living people) Novelists from Alberta {{Canada-writer-stub