1955-
rkempa@wwcc.wy.edu
Sweetwater County
Biographical and Professional Information
Poet and essayist Rick Kempa teaches writing and philosophy and directs the Honors Program at Western Wyoming Community College. Born in Chicago, Kempa moved west in 1974 to attend St. John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico. After a several-year career as a hitchhiker and oddjobsman, he enrolled at the University of Arizona in Tucson, where he earned an MFA in Creative Writing in 1987. He has been a Wyomingite since 1988. He is an avid hiker, with a special love for the red rock wilderness of Utah and Arizona and the backcountry of Grand Teton National Park.
Genres
Poetry
Essay
Publications
Books
Keeping the Quiet (2008). Shoreline, WA: Bellowing Ark Press. ISBN: 978-0-944920-62-6 http://www.bellowingark.org/
Anthologies
- Beyond Forgetting: Poetry and Prose about Alzheimer’s Disease (Kent State University, 2009).
- Out of Line: Writings on Peace and Justice (Garden House Press, 2009)
- Your Turn: Stories of Renewal. Chrysalis Reader (Swedenborg Foundation, 2009)
- Imagine That! Breaking Through to Other Worlds Chrysalis Reader (Swedenborg Foundation, 2008)
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Fence Lines (Wyoming Arts Council, Laramie, 2007).
- Dense Growth: Writing the Pacific Northwest (Pronghorn Press, 2002).
- Dry Ground: Writing the Desert Southwest (Pronghorn Press, 2002).
- Best American Nature Writing (Sierra,1997)
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Tumblewords: Writers Reading the West (University of Nevada, 1995).
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Yellow Silk: Erotic Arts and Letters (Three Rivers Press, 1992).
- When I Am an Old Woman, I Shall Wear Purple (Papier Mache Press, 1991)
Periodicals--Recent Publications
Alligator Juniper (Prescott College, Arizona) Bellevue Literary Journal (NYU School of Medicine), Bellowing Ark (Shoreline, Washington), Camas (University of Montana), Confrontation (Long Island University), Cream City Review (University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee), Haight Ashbury Review (San Francisco), Healing Muse (Center for Bioethics and Humanities, Syracuse), High Desert Journal (Bend, Oregon), Journal of the American Medical Association, Owen Wister Review (University of Wyoming), Puerto del Sol (New Mexico State University, Las Cruces), South Loop Review (Columbia College, Chicago), Redivider (Emerson College, Boston), Teaching English in the Two-Year College, Two Review (Anchorage, Alaska).
Speaking Engagements
Accepts engagements for public readings and for workshops on the craft of writing and the art of getting published. Fees variable (sliding scale).
Contact
rkempa@wwcc.wy.edu
Rick Kempa
504 Walnut Street
Rock Springs, WY 82901
Links
- “The Church of the Chance Encounter,” essay, Redivider. http://www.redividerjournal.org/the-church-of-chance-encounter/
- “The Man Who Is Given to Motion,” essay. Midway Journal. http://www.midwayjournal.com/Summer07_Fiction-The_Man_Who_Is_Given_To_Motion.html
- “All We Want Is a Path," poem, Mountain Gazette,July 2009. http://www.mountaingazette.com/exclusive/poetry/all_we_want_is_a_path/
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“Lost Cool,” prose poem. Conte: A Journal of Narrative Writing. http://www.conteonline.net/issue0202/p06.shtmlConte Online
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“Prayer for My Mother,” poem. Beyond Forgetting: Poetry and Prose about Alzheimer’s Disease. http://www.beyondforgettingbook.com/poems2.html
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“Small Breaths,” poem, Journal of the American Medical Association, http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/extract/296/11/1326
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“Sometimes at Night,” poem, Journal of the American Medical Association. http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/extract/294/13/1592“
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"The Delicate Art of Dying,” “Be Two, Be One,” poems. Weber: The Contemporary West. http://weberstudies.weber.edu/archive/archive%20B%20Vol.%2011-16.1/Vol.%2014.2/14.2Kempa.htm
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“The Worst Job,” short essay. 400 Words. http://www.400words.com/2007/02/12/personal-worsts/