Ryan Gattis

Ryan Gattis was born in 1978 in Illinois, USA. He currently lives between Colorado Springs, Colorado, and East London and is a PhD candidate in Creative and Critical Writing at the University of East Anglia. He has earned an MA in Creative Writing Prose from UEA and a BFA in Creative Writing from Chapman University in Orange, California.

His first book, ROO KICKKICK AND THE BIG BAD BLIMP, a collaborative effort with his brother Brandon, a freelance artist who lives in Colorado Springs, was awarded “full marks for panache, black humour and staying power” by The Guardian.

Ryan and Brandon's second collaboration KUNG FU HIGH SCHOOL, is now available from Sceptre.

Photo: © Sam Tenney

There's a place in America where rules and laws don't apply. It's called KUNG FU HIGH SCHOOL.

Who you are DOESN'T MATTER
How you dress DOESN'T MATTER
What race you happen to belong to DOESN'T MATTER
Who you have sex with DOESN'T MATTER
What god you pray to DOESN'T MATTER

Only one thing matters at KFHS and it's a question you have to ask yourself: if nothing else mattered could you pound another human being into submission just to survive?

In a world where life or death choices are daily occurrences pain is unavoidable and consequences permanent.

15-year-old Jen and her classmates must fight for survival.

Be taken right up to the edge of the unbearable and beyond as KUNG FU HIGH SCHOOL spells out the last dying breath of the American Dream - right before stamping on its throat.

In a world where life or death choices are daily occurrences pain is unavoidable and consequences permanent.

15-year-old Jen and her classmates must fight for survival.

Be taken right up to the edge of the unbearable and beyond as KUNG FU HIGH SCHOOL spells out the last dying breath of the American Dream - right before stamping on its throat.

**Praise for KUNG FU HIGH SCHOOL

Independent on Sunday
'I want to tell you all about it so that I can discuss with you how wonderful, tragic and ultimately cathartic it was ... but I won't. You'll have to see for yourself.

The List
'Pretty damn great .... plenty of unhinged panache'

Independent
'Exuberant ... very funny ... I highly recommend it'