Hugh Ryan

Hugh Ryan
Occupations
  • Historian
  • writer
Writing career
SubjectLGBTQ history of New York City
Notable awardsStonewall Book Award (2023)
Websitehughryan.org

Hugh Ryan is an American historian and non-fiction writer focusing on the LGBTQ history of New York City. He wrote The Women's House of Detention: A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison and When Brooklyn Was Queer.

Education

Ryan attended Cornell University and received an MFA degree from Bennington College.

Career

When Brooklyn Was Queer (2019) focuses on the LGBTQ history of Brooklyn's waterfront. The book was a 2019 New York Times Editor's Choice and one of Harper's Bazaar's Best LGBTQ books of 2019. It was a finalist for the 2020 Lambda Literary Award for Nonfiction. In 2024, it was announced that Elliot Page would be an executive producer for a virtual reality-based series adapting the book, directed by Yasmin Elayat and written by Agnes Borinsky.

The Women's House of Detention (2022) focuses on the queer women and transmasculine people who were systematically imprisoned in the New York Women's House of Detention. The book won the American Library Association's 2023 Stonewall Book Award for Non-fiction and Publishers Weekly called it "a vital contribution to LGBTQ history." Kirkus Reviews called it a "blistering critique of the country’s ‘criminal legal system’.”

In 2026, he released a memoir in essays entitled My Bad: A Personal History of the Queer Nineties and Beyond.

He teaches nonfiction writing at Bennington College. He is a contributor to the Los Angeles Review of Books.

References

  1. 1 2 Goodman, Elyssa (June 15, 2026). "Read the Room: Hugh Ryan's 'My Bad' Revisits a Life of Gloriously Queer '90s Chaos and Empowerment". V Magazine. Retrieved June 29, 2026.
  2. ↑ Crain, Caleb (April 20, 2019). "'When Brooklyn Was Queer' Evokes the Borough's Hidden History". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 24, 2023.
  3. ↑ Weiss, Keely (October 11, 2019). "Celebrate National Coming Out Day with the Best LGBTQ Books of 2019". Harper's BAZAAR. Retrieved March 24, 2023.
  4. ↑ Hart, Michelle (March 10, 2020). "Here are the Finalists For the 2020 Lambda Literary Awards". Oprah Daily. Retrieved March 24, 2023.
  5. ↑ Ramachandran, Naman (March 20, 2024). "Elliot Page Boards New Canvas VR Adaptation of Hugh Ryan's 'When Brooklyn Was Queer' (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved June 29, 2026.
  6. ↑ "The Women's House of Detention". Library Journal. February 1, 2022. Retrieved March 24, 2023.
  7. ↑ "Queer Author Talk: Hugh Ryan with Jennifer Love Williams on The Women's House of Detention". Brooklyn Public Library. February 1, 2023. Retrieved March 24, 2023.
  8. ↑ "The Women's House of Detention: A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison by Hugh Ryan". Publishers Weekly. February 2, 2022. Retrieved March 24, 2023.
  9. ↑ "THE WOMEN'S HOUSE OF DETENTION". Kirkus Reviews. February 28, 2022.
  10. ↑ Tea, Michelle (June 25, 2026). "The '90s transformed queer life. Hugh Ryan looks back with humor, heartbreak and clarity". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 29, 2026.
  11. ↑ "Hugh Ryan's Book Notes music book for his book My Bad". Largehearted Boy. May 25, 2026. Retrieved June 29, 2026.
  12. ↑ Ryan, Hugh; Radclyffe, Oliver (October 27, 2024). "Alignment, Not Transition". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved June 29, 2026.
  13. ↑ "Hugh Ryan". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved June 29, 2026.