Ken Rodgers - Author, Creative Writing Teacher, Online Classes

Ken Rodgers

Boise, Idaho

Author, Poet, Teacher
Featuring On-line and On-ground Classes—Creative Writing, Short Stories, and More

"Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long."

—Walker Evans, Photographer

New book just released: Barstow and Other Poems

Ken Rodgers teaches and writes in Boise, ID. Ken has chased sheep across the desert, chased the enemy through the jungles of southeast Asia, run the headgate 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 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 has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of San Francisco. Ken is a Pushcart Prize Nominee, and was nominated for Poet Laureate of Sonoma County, California, as well as for inclusion in Best New American Voices. His book of poetry, Trench Dining (Running Wolf Press), was published in 2003. His newest book, Barstow and Other Poems, was released this year.

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 and on the governing board of the Idaho Writer's Guild, an affiliate of The Cabin literary center in Boise. 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 son, James, and a daughter, Sarah, www.sarahrodgersart.com, as well as two granddaughters, Justyce and Jayden.

Ken is available to help you 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.

"I am now taking my fourth on-line class with Ken. I know without a doubt that his lectures will
both expand my knowledge and serve as a taking-off point to learn and explore more on my own. His critiques, always thoughtful and honest, challenge me to rework my poems and grow as a writer. More though, Ken's own academic curiosity and commitment as a writer inspires and compels us, his students." --Nancy Cavers Dougherty

Go to our "Online Classes" page on this website or contact us today to learn more about our creative writing classes and workshops.

A conversation with Ken Rodgers -- May 12, 2009

Editor: We’ve noticed you have started teaching classes about the genre titled Lyric Essay. Why this sudden emphasis on such an arcane form of writing?

Ken: So much of what we do in creative writing is genre-driven. I am a process-driven writer, so I am more interested in the way the writing feels.

Editor: Could you expand on what you mean?

Ken: I believe that many writers, teachers and critics spend an inordinate amount of time worrying about where a piece of writing fits in the panoply of form or genre. I think that the writing needs to tell us what the barnyard smells like, not necessarily how it got to be a barnyard. Or instead of describing how Uncle Skinny came to own his corrals, it is just as important to let us see that the boards in the corral are splitting, the paint is long gone, and the horses have been chewing on the individual boards.

Editor: How does this relate to your idea of placing less importance on genre?

Ken: To best describe the scent of the barnyard, or the state of the boards in the corral, we might have to combine poetry and prose. Or the essay with the poem. Or the poem with the fictional plot and characters. All of these fusings might be needed to most appropriately convey the emotional truth of the writer’s intent. We are often too focused on where writing fits in the array of genres, when maybe we should be more interested in the emotional whop of the finished piece.

Now teaching workshops in the Boise area.

Photo by Maureen Lomasney, Graton, CA

Contact us to learn how to invigorate your creative writing.

Services Available

Retreats
Workshops
Writing Classes
Manuscript Critique Services
Readings

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.'"

Ken Rodgers

Eagle, ID 83616-1224

Phone: (208) 938-3011