Ryan Tracy (b. 1976) is a writer, composer, artist, and scholar. He has earned advanced degrees in Music Composition, Gender Studies, Philosophy, and holds a PhD in English from The CUNY Graduate Center. Ryan’s music, art, theater, and performance have been presented at The New Museum, Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Kitchen, Recess Art Center, Performa, Galapagos, Dixon Place, The Abrons Arts Center, Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, Art Omi, CREATE Council on the Arts, Jane Street Arts Center, and the Athens Cultural Center. In 2004, Ryan founded the experimental opera ensemble Collective Opera Company, which collaborated with filmmakers and choreographers such as Jonah Bokaer, Elke Rindfleisch, Chris Schiavo, and Moving Theater Company. Ryan has composed original music for artists such as Mx. Justin Vivian Bond, Ivy Baldwin, and Chelsea Knight. Recent performance appearances include Collective Opera Company’s Scarlet Fever (Mt. Tremper Arts), Ivy Baldwin’s Oxbow (BAM), R. B. Schlather’s The Mother of Us All (Hudson Opera House), and Chelsea Knight’s Fall to Earth (The New Museum). Fellowships include Yaddo, The Edward Albee Foundation, The New Museum Seminar, and Performa 09 Writing Live. Ryan’s fiction and poetry have been published in a number of journals, and his short story “High Desert” was nominated for the 2019 Pushcart Prize for fiction. His first book of poems, Tender Bottoms (Auntie Press), was released in 2022. Ryan taught for nearly ten years in CUNY public colleges and is currently Visiting Assistant Professor in English at Knox College in Galesburg, IL.