Fonds RC0036 - Bernadette Ryan (Rule) Fonds

Bernadette Ryan is a writer, academic teacher, radio host, and poet who predominantly publishes under the pen name Bernadette Rule. Born in 1951, Ryan grew up in Kentucky. In 1973, she received a B.A. from Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky with a double major in English and History and a minor in Education. In 1975, she received an M.A. in English from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. After graduating, she moved to Ontario, Canada, where she began writing, editing, and teaching.

Ryan has published ten collections of poetry, most recently, The Window Washer of Chartres (Paradise North Press, 2023) and Deep Breath (Frog Hollow Press, 2021). In 2021, she released her first non-fiction novel, Dark Fire (Ironing Board Press, 2021), which was shortlisted for a 2022 Hamilton Literary Award and a Whistler Independent Book Award. In 2023, she published her second non-fiction novel, The Arithmetic of Color (Ironing Board Press, 2023). She has received two Short Works Prizes, one for poetry and one for creative nonfiction, and the 2017 City of Hamilton Arts Award for Writing.

In addition to writing, Ryan taught at McMaster University in the Continuing Education Writing Certificate Program from the 1990s to 2006. She also taught English as a second language at Mohawk College from 2006 to 2019, as well as various community workshops and events around the Greater Hamilton Area.

Ryan has been involved in many local Hamilton arts organizations and activities, including hosting the Art Waves podcast series from 2008 to 2021 on the Mohawk College radio station (101.5FM). For the Art Waves program, Ryan interviewed artists, photographers, musicians, authors, and event organizers from the Greater Hamilton Area. Ryan was also an executive at the Hamilton Poetry Centre, and from 2018-2025, she served as president of the Hamilton Association for the Advancement of Literature, Science and Art (HAALSA).