Books by Bridget Ryan

Poems and short stories mingle in this provocative memoir that simultaneously explores and re-imagines one young woman’s pursuit of excitement in a world of drugs, booze, boys, rock and roll. On the border of Detroit and Windsor the stories Bridget Ryan recreates from her past reveal the immense pressures and pursuits that surround youth, beauty, and the need to win big and live fast. Tennis tournaments riddled with hallucinogenic episodes, romantic first sightings with Ferris Wheels on the horizon and tragedy lurking in further conquests, these short narratives create an overall journey through some of life’s greatest obstacles. Bitches With Problems re-appropriates the strength women are often denied through an objectifying gaze and gives the protagonist and her many fascinating female cohorts an agency and a power wrought through sheer survival, conflict, and hard-won camaraderie.