Meet The Maker: Ryan Rivas

Born and raised in Miami but now a longtime Orlando resident, Ryan Rivas is a writer, publisher, and lifelong seeker of the strange and unexpected. As the co-founder of Burrow Press, a small independent literary publisher now entering its sixteenth year, they’ve helped bring wonderfully weird, quirky, and often Florida-infused stories into the world. As an author, their work moves between literary fiction, experimental forms, surrealism, and the darker edges of the everyday. Whether writing, publishing, wandering through museums, hiking, people-watching, or simply paying attention, Ryan is always looking for the strange hiding in the mundane—and turning it into something worth reading.

Are you a native Floridian? Where did you grow up? 

I was born and raised in Miami, which makes me 305 hasta la muerte even though I’ve now lived in Orlando for longer.

What is Burrow Press?

Burrow Press is a small literary publishing company I co-founded with Jana Waring back in 2010 and have continued running on my own to this day -- our sixteenth year! We started with hyperlocal projects and over the years expanded outward in terms of who and what we publish: novels, story and essay collections, and poetry. Some win awards, which is always a pleasant surprise. This year we launched a series of collaborative artist books where a writer and a visual artist experiment in the confines of a 6x8 book. Those range in style and form, but many of our books have a strong -- though not exclusively -- Florida focus. That and they tend to be on the weirder and/or quirkier and/or darker side.

Tell us a little about yourself as an author. What genre do you write in?

I’ve been writing fiction seriously since college, [redacted] years ago, though it wasn’t until 2019 that I really recommitted to writing. The style and form/genre of my projects often change depending on the book: Nextdoor in Colonialtown is pretty experimental and conceptual, pairing found text with photography (weirdly some bookstores put it in the poetry section); you might call Lizard People literary fiction, but I am always trying to inject some elements of the weird and absurd into everything I do; in fall 2027 I have a novel coming out that for marketing purposes you might call “surreal suburban gothic”; and I’m currently working on a chapbook about the deaths of Seminole War era soldiers who had forts named after them and their fictional descents into the underworld, which will be part of an exhibition at the Hand Art Center in January 2027.

What was the spark or real-life event that inspired Lizard People?

Lizard People came from a freewrite I did after talking to a friend about hypnotherapy and recovering early childhood memories. I wrote what became the second scene in the book, where the narrator remembers himself in a crib and his mother reaching in with hands that are claws. The book got built around me questioning what I might be trying to do in that scene. What kind of animal is the mother supposed to be? When I landed on lizard, it brought up a bunch of other ideas and associations that helped develop the central characters and themes of the book. The mom being a lizard evoked “lizard people,” which is an anti-semitic conspiracy theory that led to the creation of this very confused and repressed white narrator, who ends up having to navigate the perils of a therapeutic resort -- kind of like The Magic Mountain but six-hundred pages shorter. 

Tell us a little about your writing style: How many hours a week do you spend writing? Do you outline the entire story beforehand, or do you discover it as you write?

Sometimes I outline when I’m stuck and sometimes a story begins with a sentence and a vague idea and gets discovered along the way. It usually ends up being a mix of both throughout the process, no matter which way it begins.

I try to write for a couple hours early each morning. If it’s going really well I’ll write for longer if other work or errands can be put off. I find it harder to write once the real world starts encroaching, but if I have time later in the day I’ll work on revision, which is a bit more analytical. I think having a routine is beneficial, maybe even vital, but it’s not always possible, and I have to forgive myself when real life takes over for a week or two. When I’m not writing I find it helps to read even for a few minutes each morning to remember why it is I’m doing this thing, which is to make other people feel things through stories.

What inspires you in your day to day?

Other books (of all kinds), films, music, visual art / museums, nature, people watching, eavesdropping… remembering to look for the strange in the mundane. Anything can be churned into inspiration if you’re in the right frame of mind. 

What other hobbies, interests or day jobs keep you busy when you’re not writing or working with Burrow Press?

Reading and writing take up a lot of my life and I’m not complaining. Besides that: I love film and going to Enzian (not often enough); going on hikes (in Central Florida and at National Parks elsewhere); snapping photos and dabbling in visual art; and watching football (soccer). I was lucky that running Burrow Press was part of my day job for the last five years. I was running it out of Stetson University but got laid off in July amid budget cuts, which they’re doing in order to keep their Division 1 status athletics program, which loses an average of 11 million dollars a year. Seems totally logical, if you ask me. So I’m in the process of taking Burrow with me, and that’s been kind of a day job, but I’m looking for a real day job at the moment and writing as much as possible between looking.

What have you learned about yourself from the process of becoming a published author? 

That the human mind can contain both delusions of grandeur and crushing self-doubt at the same time. That the act of writing can be both euphoric and rewarding as well as terrible and dread-inducing. That it would behoove the writer to develop a sense of balance and a realistic outlook to keep those manic poles in check.

Dogs or cats?

I am a dog person and specifically a pit bull person. But I admire a cat’s general disdain for private property.

Random fact about yourself?

I throw balls with my left hand but frisbees with my right, and have been too lazy to look up whether this qualifies as ambidextrous. Not that I’ve thrown much of anything in years.

What does the word “veer” mean to you?

I think of a sudden shift, and I picture a car veering off the road. But if I think about it more, “to veer” requires reading a situation and adapting quickly. It’s more life skill than car wreck. I like it, too, because when said aloud it’s quick -- like the suddenness of its definition -- but also soft with all the vowel sounds, which is a smooth contrast.