Rick Kempa

Rick Kempa 1955-

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.

Sweetwater County

Contact

rkempa@wwcc.wy.edu

Rick Kempa

504 Walnut Street

Rock Springs, WY 82901

Publications

Find works by this author in a Wyoming library

Books

Keeping the Quiet (2008). Shoreline, WA: Bellowing Ark Press. ISBN: 978-0-944920-62-6 http://www.bellowingark.org/

Anthologies in which work appears

Market Place. forthcoming from Chrysalis, Swedenborg Foundation, in 2011.
Anthology on trains (as yet untitled). forthcoming from Pudding House Press, Columbus, OH, 2011.
What's Nature Got to Do with Me?: Staying Wildly Sane in a Mad World. forthcoming from Native West Press, Prescott, AZ, 2011.
Moments of the Soul: Poems of Mindfulness and Meditation. (Spirit First: Langley Park, MD, 2010).
Touching: Poems of Love, Longing and Desire. (Fearless Books: 2010).
Telling It Real: The Best of Pilgrimage 2003-2008. (Pilgrimage Press, Crestone, CO 2010).
Imaginaton and Place: Ownership (Imagination and Place Press, Kansas City, 2010).
Kaleidoscope: Lenses on Reality. Chrysalis Reader (Swedenborg Foundation, 2009).
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)
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)
Tumblewords: Writers Reading the West (University of Nevada, 1995).
Yellow Silk: Erotic Arts and Letters (Three Rivers Press, 1992).
When I Am an Old Woman, I Shall Wear Purple (Papier Mache Press, 1991)

Publications in Periodicals, 2006-2011

Alligator Juniper (Prescott College, Arizona)
Ars Medica (University of Toronto)
Bellevue Literary Journal (NYU School of Medicine)
Bellowing Ark (Shoreline, Washington)
Camas (University of Montana)
Confrontation (Long Island University)
Conte Online
Cream City Review (University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee)
The Deronda Review (Madison, WI))
Haight Ashbury Review (San Francisco)
Healing Muse (Center for Bioethics and Humanities, Syracuse)
High Desert Journal (Bend, Oregon)
The J Journal: New Writings on Justice (John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York)
Journal of the American Medical Association
Marco Polo Quarterly
Matter (Fort Collins, CO)
Lalitamba
Los Angeles Review
Mountain Gazette
Owen Wister Review (University of Wyoming)
Passager (Baltimore, MD)
Pilgrimage (Crestone, Colorado)
Puerto del Sol (New Mexico State University, Las Cruces)
Redivider (Emerson College, Boston)
Red Rock Review (Community College of Southern Nevada, Las Vegas)
Reed Magazine (San Jose State University)
Restoring Connections (Sky Island Alliance)
Ruminate Magazine (Fort Collins, CO)
San Pedro Review (Tucson, Arizona)
Sendero (New Mexico Highlands University)
South Loop Review (Columbia College, Chicago)
Teaching English in the Two-Year College
Town Creek Poetry .
Two Review (Anchorage, Alaska)
Utah English Journal

Links to Some Published Works

"Call It Ours" "One of Them," "The Secret of Bruce Cooley," Town Creek Poetry, Spring 2011.
"You Do Not Need to Fear the Heat," poem with editorial comment. Leveler, February 2011.
"Sunday Afternoon," poem. Hobble Creek Review, Winter, 2011.
"Transition Zone" and "Chiricahua" poems, Restoring Connections (Sky Alliance Newsletter, Fall 2010).
Di Mezzo Il Mare, notebook snapshots.
"Don't Go Back to Sleep," poem. Kaleidoscope: Lenses on Reality (Swedenborg Foundation, 2009)
"Nightshift,” essay. Ducts.org
"History of My Water Bottle, June 20, 1986," poem. Tonopah La: A Quarterly Journal of Prose and Poetry
"The Church of the Chance Encounter,” essay, Redivider.
“The Man Who Is Given to Motion,” essay. Midway Journal.
"The Hour of the Snake," poem, High Desert Journal
"The Rudeness," Common Sense Family Doctor blog, December 2009
“Lost Cool,” prose poem. Conte: A Journal of Narrative Writing.
“Prayer for My Mother,” poem. Beyond Forgetting: Poetry and Prose about Alzheimer’s Disease.
“Small Breaths,” poem, Journal of the American Medical Association
“Sometimes at Night,” poem, Journal of the American Medical Association.
"The Delicate Art of Dying,” “Be Two, Be One,” poems. Weber: The Contemporary West.
“The Worst Job,” short essay. 400 Words.
"Two Men on an Island," prose poem In a Family Way Anthology

Speaking Engagements

Rick accepts engagements for public readings and workshops. Fees variable (sliding scale). He is a member of the Wyoming Arts Council Arts-in-Education roster, which means that grants of up to $600 are available to sponsor a visit for him to a Wyoming community. Drawing on a quarter-century of experience as an educator and professional writer and a commitment to sharing his love of the written word, he offers one- or two-day craft workshops for teens, college students, and adults, which are custom-designed to meet the needs and experience-level of participants. He also offers a publishing workshop which equips more experienced writers with necessary tools and techniques, and he gives spirited performances of his own work.
In July 2011, Rick served as the Artist-in-Residence at Hubbell Trading Post on the Navajo Nation in Ganado, AZ, writing poetry, interacting with visitors and giving a public presentation.
In August 2010, Rick served as Artist-in-Residence at Grand Canyon National Park South Rim, writing poems and essays, hiking, and giving several public programs, both on the Rim and at Phantom Ranch.