Ken Rodgers
Author, Poet, Editor, Filmmaker
“Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long.”
—Walker Evans, Photographer
Ken Rodgers lives and writes in Tucson, AZ. He has chased sheep across the desert, chased the enemy through the jungles of southeast Asia, run the head gate to capture cattle, pounded the keys of a calculator, pounded the keys of a typewriter, peddled mountain real estate, and tailed off recycled redwood at a finishing mill.
An award-winning author, Ken explores the region where poetry and prose meet.
His poems, short stories and essays have appeared in Hypertext Review, Collateral Journal, Allium, A Journal of Poetry & Prose, Limberlost Review, Idaho Arts Quarterly, Eagle Magazine, The Farallon Review, 34th Parallel, Ascent Aspirations, Switchback, VerbSap, Absomaly, Tiny Lights, Fiction Attic, Roman Candles, and other publications. He earned an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of San Francisco. Ken was a Pushcart Prize Nominee, nominated for Best American Short Stories, nominated as Poet Laureate of Sonoma County, California, as well as for inclusion in Best New American Voices. His first book of poetry, Trench Dining (Running Wolf Press), was published in 2003. Barstow and Other Poems, was released in 2008. His latest collection, Passenger Pigeons, was released in 2010. Ken’s collection of short stories, The Gods of Angkor Wat was published in 2014.
He has performed his work in libraries, hair salons, coffee shops, book fairs, wineries, movie theaters, colleges, pubs, book stores, and on public radio and television. He has also juried several writing contests.
Ken is a founding member of the Idaho Writer’s Guild which is an affiliate of The Cabin literary center in Boise. He has served on the board of both Big Tree Arts and True North Creative Learning Center. Along with his wife, Betty, he was a founding member of the Literary Arts Council of the Sebastopol Center for the Arts in Sebastopol, CA, and together they have hosted many classes, workshops, and readings. They have a married son and daughter, a married daughter and son, as well as three granddaughters.
Ken is available to help spice up your writing. Whether you are a committed writer trying to start or finish a book, a budding poet, or a businessperson trying to discover better ways to express yourself, Ken’s instruction and advice are invaluable. Working with him will bring dramatic changes to your writing.
From Ray Holley’s column, Main Street, of the Healdsburg Tribune:
“Healdsburg novelist Jean Hegland says this about Ken: ‘His commitment to writing spans many years, and I have admired his work for nearly that long. He has a fine eye and an excellent ear and a huge and courageous heart. Whatever his subject, his writing is always unflinchingly honest, and I’ve grown to depend on the way that honesty both scathes and celebrates the subjects he writes about.’”
Contact Ken here to learn how to invigorate your creative writing.
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