Rick Kempa
poet and essayist      educator      walking man
  • Home
  • About
  • Workshops
  • Publications
    • Books
    • Poems and Essays Online
    • Video
  • Contact Info

 ​Published in 2020 by Littoral Press
Too Vast for Sleep                            
Picture

Too Vast for Sleep is a gathering of open-air poems from the backcountry of the Colorado Plateau and the streets of my small city; love poems for Fern, spanning our 35 years of marriage; poems of urgency about "this thing called time"; poems for and about the students with whom it was my privilege to work for 30 years; and more. The cover image is by David Marx. Click here for ordering info.

Summer 2020 edition
DEEP WILD: WRITING FROM THE BACKCOUNTRY​, VOLUME 2
Picture

​​Deep Wild: Writing from the Backcountry aims to do what no other literary journal does: to provide a home for creative work inspired by journeys to places where there are no roads. Volume 2, published in July, features 150 pages of writing by 41 writers--and a beautiful cover by wildlands watercolor artist Susan Marsh.

​For more information about Deep Wild, to read excerpts from Volume 1, and to purchase a subscription, please visit www.deepwildjournal.com


GOING DOWN GRAND: Poems from the Canyon
edited by Peter Anderson and Rick Kempa
Picture
​
​Going Down Grand, the first full-length collection of poems about the Grand Canyon, gathers the voices of over sixty writers, past and present, to bear witness to this magnificent place.To order, please visit Lithic Press. Also available on Amazon.
Links to reviews:  Boatman's Quarterly, Entropy, Plants & Rocks, Western Wyoming College.


ON FOOT : GRAND CANYON  BACKPACKING STORIES
edited by Rick Kempa
Picture

​Twenty-seven writers offer
tales of adventure, discovery,
danger, and deep solitude
in this first-ever anthology
devoted to the Grand Canyon
backpacking experience.
​
To order, visit Vishnu Temple Press

table of Contents
Introduction
LINKS TO PUBLISHED WORK:
​"Fly It At Half Mast Always," a poem about our true "national emergency," from New Verse News

"Headtrip Hollow, Panic Gulch," a tale of sibling camaraderie and conflict, from a hike some decades ago in the Grand Canyon.. from Under the Sun, an excellent journal that specializes in creative non-fiction.

"Going Home Road, Road Away from Home." Here’s something from the Golden Age of Hitchhiking—the story of a stretch of road, I-17 Tucson to Flag, recently written for Trampset, “a literary journal for the tramps.”

"Urban Heights," about a childhood spent on the school roof in the old neighborhood of Chicago, "a playground fit for princes, a garden of the gods." From Under One Sun

“What the Canyon Teaches,”
 an Earth Day poem from Points and Parks website. ​

"Tale of a Tent," Once I had a tent, the Taj Mahal I called it, that wanted more than anything to fly. From Watershed Review. 
​

“Nothing Between Us Now But Love.” “My mother and I are working our way down to Moab, where I will be leaving her in the care of my brother.” From Hippocampus Magazine 

​Something from the "When Will I Ever Learn?" Department: "On Static Peak," from Watershed Review, about a dicey moment high up in the Tetons one summer morning

Click here to read 
additional poems and essays online

ON YOUTUBE
Readings from Wyoming Poetry Out Loud, 2019
Readings from "A Conspiracy of Ravens" art and poetry show, Rock Springs, 2019
​CLICK HERE FOR MORE VIDEOS



power places


Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.