Interview with Kevin Ridgeway

Well, while the submission pour in for Issue 5, let’s hear from one of the contributors to Issue 4. Kevin Ridgeway, who gave us the poem “My Biggest Crush.”

Describe your work in 25 words or less.

Fly-on-the-wall stories of everyday debauchery, guilt and redemption.  Self-deprecating and humorous when necessary and rather strange at times.  My little daydreams…

Tell me about your poem “My Biggest Crush.”

I wrote that poem from the memory of a photograph of my ex-wife in high school.  I imagined what her world must have been like in those days based on what she had told me and what was evident in the photograph itself.  It’s my little tribute to her, even though our romance is long over.

What or who inspires you to write?

I’ve been writing ever since I could pick up a pencil or even a crayon, when I was very young.  I must write.  I don’t have to attempt to publish, but I must write to express the writing on the walls of my mind.  I choose to publish, which I have found very rewarding.  Even if I stop publishing, I will never stop writing.

What authors have influenced you as a writer?

Early on:  Kurt Vonnegut, Carson McCullers, Allen Ginsberg, Walt Whitman, John Fante, Bukowski and Dorothy Parker.  Contemporary authors who inspire me include Gerald Locklin, Bill Gainer and Clint Margrave, among many others.

Do you have a blog/website?

I did have a blog, which is sort of lying dormant right now.  I intend to build a website with my credits, archives and literary loves in the near future, if I can stop procrastinating.

What are you working on right now?

I will soon be promoting a couple of chapbooks of my poems:  All the Rage from Electric Windmill Press and Contents Under Pressure from Crisis Chronicles Press.  I’ve begun assembling poems for a full-length collection, which I am sure will take some time.  Other than that, I am always writing, especially my little poems.

Any advice for other writers?

Read a lot, work on the craft of writing a lot.  Don’t give up because of rejections.  There’s a lot of that, but there is also a lot of acceptance to be had, too.

Anything else you’d like to say?

I’m basically a creative clown who throws words together with the hope that they stick in the mind of the reader.  If I even manage to entertain, I think I’ve done my job.  Oh, and:  Life is short.  Do what you love.