Bitches with Problems

Front Cover
Hidden Brook Press, 2017 - Biography & Autobiography - 188 pages

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.

About the author (2017)

Bridget Ryan was born and raised in Windsor, Ontario across the river from Detroit. Her teenage years saw the glory days of a booming automotive industry, the blossoming alternative Pop culture and the lure of Motown, Rock 'n' Roll and Punk Rock. Born last in a large Irish Catholic family, she excelled in most sports, but found comfort in the solitude of tennis and quickly achieved ranking. Through her teens, the suffocation of prim Windsor forced her gang of friends to cross over to 'Murder City' to check out the hottest clubs and on many occasions, were rewarded with sightings of The Rolling Stones, Patti Smith, and The Ramones. From a very young age, her attraction to literature bloomed under the tutelage of some of America's greatest writers: Salinger, Fitzgerald, and Kerouac. Bridget completed a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature with a minor in Creative Writing at York University in Toronto, Ontario and then went on to attain a Bachelor of Education degree, also from York. Bridget has worked as a Librarian, a Physical Education Teacher and as a Literacy Teacher at a school board in Toronto, Ontario. Her passion for live music, poetry and literature have led her on many a harrowing soul searching trips. Her memoir, Bitches With Problems, is a collection of stories culled from her boisterous travels through addiction, asylums, death and back again.

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