We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ryan Buynak a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Ryan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

I have been working on a novel for over ten years, and it is finally close to actually being unleashed into the world. As a labor of love, persistence, patience and life, seeing the release on the horizon is an indescribable feeling. Just like the book itself, it is visceral and real. It is meaningful for the hard work that has gone into but also the subject matter: it is about a writer written off; a sub-culture, blue-collar creative who tasted a little bit of success, and then – for a mysterious reason you discover in the book – disappeared, and now he is trying to get his life back on track. It is called Eating Dirt, and it is a funny, heartbreaking, cinematic story of redemption.

Ryan, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Writing chose me; I did not chose it. It has become a compulsion in my life, one I cannot and will not ever turn off. I am very lucky to do what I love for a living, and I implore anyone and everyone to do what they love every damn day. It doesn’t matter if you’re an artist…If you want to be a real estate agent, find a way to do real estate agent shit every single day. I am most proud of the 13 books of poetry I have written and published, which sit on bookshelves all around the world, because that is legacy that will live a lot longer than me.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Back to doing what you love everyday…if you love something, you also never give up on it. It’s an unquestionable loyalty that must be found and fostered; your journey depends on it. Odds are if you quit something, you didn’t love it, because if you do love something quitting it or giving up isn’t even in the peripheral. Don’t ever give up.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My ultimate goal is just to make/create/write as much as possible and leave a legacy for my daughter.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @coyoteblood
• Twitter: @ryanbuynak
• Other: Check out my podcast, Bothering the Band, in which I ask famous musicians super silly questions.