Hugh Ryan

For the Roman Catholic bishop, see Hugh Edward Ryan.

For Irish-Canadian industrialist, see Hugh Ryan (railway magnate).

Hugh Ryan is an American historian and non-fiction writer focusing on the LGBT history of New York City. He wrote The Women's House of Detention: A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison and When Brooklyn Was Queer.

Hugh Ryan
Occupation	Historian writer
Nationality	American
Genre	Non-fiction
Notable awards	Stonewall Book Award (2023)

The Women's House of Detention focuses on the queer women and transmasculine people who were systematically imprisoned in the New York City institution.^[1] The book won the American Library Association's 2023 Stonewall Book Award for nonfiction^[2] and Publishers Weekly called it "a vital contribution to LGBTQ history."^[3] Kirkus Reviews called it a "blistering critique of the country’s ‘criminal legal system’.”^[4]

When Brooklyn Was Queer focuses on the LGBT history of the borough's waterfront. The book was a 2019 New York Times Editor's Choice^[5] and one of Harper's Bazaar's Best LGBTQ books of 2019.^[6] It was a finalist for the 2020 Lambda Literary Award for Nonfiction.^[7]