Middle-America's most engaging authors since 1998.
Middle-America's most engaging authors since 1998.
Kevin Ridgeway is the author of Too Young to Know (Stubborn Mule Press, 2019) and Invasion of the Shadow People (Luchador Press, 2022), in addition to over a dozen chapbooks and split books. His work has appeared in Hiram Poetry Review, New York Quarterly, Paterson Literary Review, Gargoyle, Slipstream, Chiron Review, Nerve Cowboy, Heavy Feather Review, San Pedro River Review and Trailer Park Quarterly, among others. A Pushcart and Best of the Net nominee, he lives and writes in Long Beach, CA.
Published: 2025
A dispatch from halfway houses and sober living facilities. Here are feverish fractals of elaborate blues in cascading Kerouac long lines. Ridgeway white knuckles through these bleak times.
—Westley Heine
Kintsugi, the Japanese art wherein broken pottery is repaired with gold, strengthening the breaks but also transforms imperfections into features of stunning beauty. Kevin’s spare, translucent poems are veined in gold and speak that truth in every line.
—Kristofer Collins writes about books in Pittsburgh, PA
If you live the poem, do yourself a favor, crack this book and hang your heartbreaks together.
—Jason Baldinger