Celebrate publication night with author Ryan T. Pozzi, poet Matt Mason, and a seated tea service inspired by the artists and ideas in The Mess That Made Them.

Ryan explores how culture turns complicated creative lives into oversimplified stories of genius, and what disappears in the process.

Ryan returns home for a conversation with Matt Mason about the failures, detours, pressures, and unlikely breakthroughs behind The Mess That Made Them.

Meet Ryan in Modale for a fall festival bringing together books, pumpkins, local makers, and a full day of community celebration.

Famous artists make terrible role models, but their failures, compromises, and reinventions can tell us far more than their legends ever do.

Find Ryan among the authors, readers, booksellers, and literary organizations gathering at Washburn University for the fifteenth annual Kansas Book Festival.

Readers who purchase The Mess That Made Them by September 30 are invited to a live online conversation with Ryan, including questions and behind-the-scenes stories from the book.

At Nerd Nite Lincoln, Ryan explains why famous artists are terrible role models, with fewer marble busts and considerably more bad decisions.

Ryan dismantles the fantasy of the flawless genius and uncovers the failures, exclusions, illnesses, and accidents hidden behind familiar artistic legends.

Ryan joins Iowa novelist Kali VanBaale for a conversation about creative failure, public mythology, and the stories history edits out.

Ryan brings the messy lives of famous artists to Nerd Nite Omaha for a fast, funny look at why genius makes such lousy life advice.

Meet Ryan at the Nebraska Celebration of Books, a day devoted to the state’s literary heritage, contemporary authors, and the communities built around reading.

Ryan reveals what artistic legends conceal and asks what becomes possible when we stop treating famous creators as instructions for living.

At Vermillion’s independent book and game store, Ryan asks how cultures manufacture genius and what those flattering inventions leave behind.

Spend the lunch hour with Ryan for a lively look at why famous artists are terrible role models and much more interesting human beings.

Ryan joins My Life in My Pocket Book Club online to discuss what artists’ failures and reinventions can teach us about ambition, identity, and beginning again.

Ryan joins fellow authors and nonfiction readers for a virtual holiday gathering devoted to books worth gifting, reading, and discussing.

Ryan closes the 2026 tour at Francie & Finch with a conversation about how we invent genius and what those inventions hide.