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How to Appear Perfectly Indifferent While Crying on the Inside

Jay Ritchie
POETRY

48 pages
Cover art: Claire Milbrath
ISBN 9780993617409
Spring 2014

I am 100 depressed teenagers

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.

Excerpts

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

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.”

Jay Ritchie

Jay Ritchie is a PhD student in English at McGill University, where he studies contemporary poetry and performance. He is the author of the poetry collections Listening in Many Publics (Invisible Publishing, 2024), a finalist for Wendy’s Subway 2021 Open Reading Book Prize, judged by John Keene, and Cheer Up, Jay Ritchie (Coach House Books, 2017). His work has appeared in The Dalhousie Review, EVENT, Powder Keg, The Puritan, Spork, Peach Mag, Vallum, glitterMOB, and been performed on CBC Radio, at the Newmarket National 10-minute Play Festival, and as part of a digital installation at the PHI Centre.