By Kerry Ryan
Vs. is a collection of poems chronicling a foray into the world of amateur boxing by a shy, bookish woman you’d never expect could hit someone in the face. Throughout these poems the author reflects on what it means to be a woman and a boxer, as well as a poet and a boxer. Part instruction manual, part rationalization Vs. is ultimately about the fights, both mental and physical, we all must confront.
“The poems in Kerry Ryan’s Vs. come at you like quick jabs of light – the writing is taut, worked over, sinewy, spare, and lean – but never mean. A delightful collection. What else can be said? These poems pack a punch.”
– Jeanette Lynes, Author, The New Blue Distance
“Muhammad Ali, keep your guard up. You’re being measured by a better boxing poet. Kerry Ryan has the clarity of vision that comes with a boxer’s discipline and daring, the grace of a true poet’s music of body and mind made one.”
– Robert Kroetsch, Author, Too Bad: Sketches Toward a Self-Portrait
Kerry Ryan’s poems have appeared in literary journals across the country. Her first collection, The Sleeping Life, was published by The Muses’ Company in 2008 and nominated for the Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize for Poetry in 2009. In March 2009, she competed in, and won, a white collar boxing match. She lives in Winnipeg.
