This informal talk will highlight selected facets of Ryga’s harsh family background in northern Alberta, his early reflections about life, and his passion for “ordinary people,” before he wins a writing competition that sends him to Banff where he takes classes with influential instructors, including the man who taught Tennessee Williams. Then, in the mid 1950s, he bikes with a friend around Scotland and achieves his dream of encountering the land and memory of writing idol Robert Burns on his home turf. Back in Canada, a major writing breakthrough occurs when he pens a series of short stories titled “Poor People,” one of which, Indian, is featured on CBC television and establishes his reputation. A major dramatic achievement follows with The Ecstasy of Rita Joe, a play stemming from several noteworthy sources. But his equally ambitious Paracelsus, so full of promise, is a failure. His final work, a highly personal and affecting poem called “Resurrection,” is read by a friend, Henry Beissel, at an international poetry festival in Iraq only weeks after Ryga’s death.