Ryan Burden is a middle school teacher, a doctor of English and Creative Writing, and a graduate of the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers. His first novel, Where the Light Flickers, is forthcoming from Silent Clamor Press. His short story “Coming of Age” won Redivider’s 2016 Beacon Street Prize for fiction. His novel Orphans was shortlisted for the 2024 Steel Toe Books Prose Award. Other work has appeared in Switchback, Gulf Stream, and JMWW, among others. He lives in Boston, MA.