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 studies poetry and performance of the 20th and 21st centuries. He is author of the poetry collections  Cheer Up, Jay Ritchie (Coach House Books, 2017) and  How to Appear Perfectly Indifferent While Crying On the Inside (Metatron Press, 2014). His creative writing has been performed on CBC Radio, at the Newmarket National 10-minute Play Festival, and as part of a digital installation at the PHI Centre.

POETRY
48 pages
Cover art | Claire Milbrath
ISBN | 978-0-9936174-0-9
Spring 2014

Press

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."

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.”

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

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