I am 100 depressed teenagers

24-hour diners, swimming pools, haunted McDonald’s, reincarnation and fame in remote East Africa: the poems in How To Appear Perfectly Indifferent While Crying on the Inside follow a young 20-something as he navigates break-ups, adulthood, technology and loneliness. This collection uses imagery and irony, self-deprecating humour and the poignant pop culture reference to create a work that is funny, earnest and colloquial.

Jay Ritchie is the author of Cheer Up Jay Ritchie (Coach House, 2017) and Something You Were, Might Have Been, or Have Come to Represent (Insomniac Press, 2014). How to Remain Perfectly Indifferent While Crying on the Inside was his first published collection of poetry.

48 pages
Perfect-bound
Second edition, first printing
Cover art | Claire Milbrath
ISBN | 978-0-9936174-0-9

Press

REVIEW | Weird Canada | "In a familiar Montreal permeated throughout by the surreal, Richie takes a funny and unsentimental approach to the anhedonic crawl through early adulthood in the digital age, as his characters download computer viruses to their brains, search fruitlessly for the Kim Kardashian sex tape, and question the legitimacy of their entire existence inside of a recognizably indifferent universe."

REVIEW | Echo | "Ritchie’s style of irony imbues the simplest phrase with layers of potential meaning hidden beyond the first level, beyond explicit interpretation (...) A confessional writer for society itself.”

EXCERPT | Metatron | Whenever A Red Digital Alarm Clock Reads 6:34 I Am Reminded Of My Father

EXCERPT | Alt Lit Gossip | How to Appear Perfectly Indifferent While Crying on the Inside

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