Fossil of the New Scene:

by Kevin Ridgeway

Kevin Ridgeway is a saint—but like any good saint, he is a sinner. His writing dissects the backroads and rooftops of our fallen world with infinite empathy. He regrets it all even as he revels in it.
Junkie Saints. Crushed paintings. Boarding house knife fights. The friend who disappeared into rumors Ridgeway's writing chronicles the aesthetics of forgotten places. He draws beautiful maps of hell so that you can pass through when you find yourself there.
—Scott Noon Creley, author of Digging a Hole to the Moon

I'm certain Kevin Ridgeway's got the clean straight writing. And he knows what a poem can be made of. That is, if you're looking for something with authenticity. Movement is stumbling through reality, falling on your ass. Often the speaker is just trying to find a way to go one. It's not easy (try it sometime): writing excellent strong poetry about real life and real people. Thank god he hasn't been corrupted. Ridgeway is a STRONG voice. It's rare, especially in American poetry.
—Don Winter, Poet

The semi-annual detox is in full swing, here in the flop house of the deranged and unemployable, ravaged warriors of imaginary wars, a would be pall bearer vagabond, too high on thunder and lightning to know better. drunken suicide pacts made in ant-infested bathtubs, strange rumblings of nonsense manifestos and cigarette smoke permeates the air. Drink cheap malts and pass out in ramen noodle adorned slumber to be woken by the screams of an upstairs knife fight.
—Dave Roskos, editor of Big Hammer & Street Value zines

Genres: Poetry

118 pages, Paperback

First published July 9, 2020

About the author

Kevin Ridgeway was born and raised in Southern California, where he currently resides in a shady bungalow with his girlfriend and their one-eyed cat. He has been published in a wide variety of online and print magazines internationally. "Burn through Today" is his first chapbook collection of poetry, available from Flutter Press. Another chapbook of poetry, "Contents Under Pressure" is forthcoming from Crisis Chronicles Press.