We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kevin Ridgeway. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kevin below.

Kevin , appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

I’ve published two full length poetry collections, Too Young to Know (Stubborn Mule Press) and Invasion of the Shadow People (Luchador Press), seven split collections with other poets and a dozen chapbooks with small and independent presses in my fourteen years as a publishing writer.

They have all carried great meaning for me, but I will highlight a recent project of mine that was especially meaningful. In January of last year, I was contacted by John Dorsey, one of the best writers and poets I know. He was one of the veterans of the small press who offered me their support and guidance when I first started out. I remember reading and finding great inspiration from his work in publications I admired or was lucky enough to share space with him in. John has been published everywhere, knows everyone and has worked with countless publishers. I had just launched a book imprint of my own, Dark Heart Press, to give back to my community by publishing collections of poetry and prose by newcomers and experienced scribes alike. John initially wanted to publish a collection of short fiction, but that quickly changed to us doing a split book of poetry together–something we had both wanted to do for a long time. When he offered a title and a batch of some of his best recent poems for a split, it became an offer that I simply could not refuse.

The resulting collection, The Sacred Millennial Burial Ground, was released in September 2024. Any collaboration with John Dorsey is meaningful–working alongside him on this collection motivated me to make it one of my strongest volumes yet, not to mention the opportunity of blessing the world with more of his undeniable magic.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a poet, writer, editor and publisher currently based in Long Beach, California. My initial interest was in writing plays and prose, but that shifted to poetry in college when I discovered Walt Whitman, Allen Ginsberg, Richard Brautigan, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Charles Bukowski, among many others who distracted me from what I had set out to accomplish and study. It was a distraction that evolved into a way of life for me.

In 2009, a girlfriend talked me into attending a poetry reading here in Southern California, where I first heard and met the poet, writer, editor and educator Dr, Gerald Locklin, who became a major source of inspiration for me and who led me to discovering Wormwood Review which showcased other countless poets who would inform and influence my own poems.

People like Locklin encouraged me to submit my poems to journals and magazines, which I did with a vengeance beginning in 2011. Deadlines form the basis of my writing practice, which is something I tend to daily.

Since then, my work has been published widely in the small and independent press, in places like Hiram Poetry Review, New York Quarterly, Paterson Literary Review, Gargoyle Magazine, Slipstream, Chiron Review, Nerve Cowboy, Sheila-Na-Gig, San Pedro River Review, Cultural Daily and Trailer Park Quarterly, as well as in anthologies like Sh*t Men Say to Me: A Poetry Anthology in Response to Toxic Masculinity (Moon Tide Press) and Beat Not Beat: An Anthology of California Poets Screwing on the Beat and Post-Beat Tradition (Moon Tide Press). My work has been nominated for the Pushcart and Best of the Net anthologies.

I write narrative free verse poems that highlight my experiences overcoming mental health issues, addiction, childhood abuse and the real world around me as it unfolds. My work highlights the extraordinary in the everyday, in all of its beauty and all of its ugliness. A dark sense of humor thrives in my lines, and a down to earth heart.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

When people reach out to me after reading my work, be it in journals, magazines or in books, to tell me that it had moved them–or even better, after they hear me at a reading and ask me to sign their new copy of one of my books. Conversations and friendships are started that way, community and human connection.

And every time I’m in the zone, lost in the construction of a new poem that I’ve been writing, achieving inspired creative flow that results in a piece of humble art to contribute to the grand mosaic.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Show up to their openings, concerts, readings and buy their art whenever you can. And spread the word.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @ridgeway.kevin
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kevin.ridgeway.560
• Twitter: @kevinridgeway82.bsky.social

Image Credits

Michael Hruska
Steven Smith
Jim Z. MacGowin