Riddell, Ron

Ron Riddell (b. 1949)

Contents

Aotearoa NZ Poetry Sound Archive (2004):

CD31

1. I wish I Was More Like a Mormon
2. How to Eat a Hotdog on the Main Street of Thames
3. The Mystic Way
4. If You Walk
5. For Colombia
6. The Coast/At Paekaekaeriki
7. The Empty Tomb
8. The Shrine
9. The Rose of Peace

Bio / Bibliography:

1949 - Born in Auckland.
1970 - B.A. Auckland University, majoring in English and History.
1971 - Dip. Teaching, Auckland Teacher’s College.
1972-5 - Teaching English, History, Social Studies and English as a Foreign Language in New Zealand, United Kingdom and Greece.
1976-7 - Editor, World Food Yearbook, Cranwell Publishing, Auckland. Responsible for research, compilation, advertising, editorial, typography, graphic design, print run.
1977-80 - Teaching English, Art, Physical Education and Social Studies in New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
1980 - Editor and Information Officer, publishing periodicals for Recreation, Arts and Youth division, Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington, New Zealand.
1981 - Tutor, in English and Community Studies, A.I.T., Auckland.
1982-1994 - Full time freelance writer, performer, editor and teacher.
1995-2000 - Founder and Proprietor of Dead Poets Bookstore and Live Poets Café, a non-profit literary and cultural enterprise, designed to foster “live affordable culture” with a grass roots multi-cultural approach.
2001 - Attended XI International Poetry Festival in Medellin, Colombia.
2002 - Published El Milagro de Medellin, a bilingual English/Spanish book in Colombia (the first such edition by a New Zealand writer to be published in Latin America).

Cultural and Community Experience

• Formerly a semi professional jazz musician, late 60s, early 70s.
• Painter (viz. Oils); two group shows in Auckland, 1990 and 1992.
• Founder of the Titirangi Poets (1976); originally The Titirangi Poetry and Jazz group, the Titirangi Poets has published more than twenty anthologies.
• Performance poet and creative writing in a wide range of Auckland Secondary and Intermediate Schools (references available), helping students to prepare work for publication and/or performances, Piers Davies, Kathleen Grattan.
• Group recital with 3 other New Zealand poets Kevin Ireland, Basil Dowling and Jan Kemp at New Zealand House, London, September, 1984. Introduced by High Commissioner.
• Founder of Writers and Artists Inc. and Dead Poets Press; small press imprints which have published more than twelve collections of verse by local poets (for example Tony Beyer, Richard Taylor, Michael Sharkey (Australian poet), Piers Davies and Kathleen Grattan)
• As a performance poet in the United Kingdom (Edinburgh Festival); Canada (Harbour front Literary Centre). Founder of a Literary performance centre in the “British School” Community Arts Complex, Stroud, England.
• Founder of Live Poets Café (adjoining to Dead Poets Bookstore), to foster and promote local artists/writers.
• As a percussionist and poet, Ron Riddell has performed in Bali, Indonesia (2000 at the Balinese International Festival of the Arts, Denpassar.
• More latterly, Ron Riddell has been travelling and living in Latin America. He has performed in Chile and Colombia, where he did the launch of his last book El Milagro de Medellin y otros poemas and many other presentations.

Publications by Ron Riddell

• Beads, Parnassus, 1975
• Persephone, Outrigger,1997
• Northern Light, Parnassus, 1978
• Islands, Parnassus, 1978
• Paths of Fight, Writer and Artists, 1980
• The Christ Light, Solent, 1983
• Sense of Being, Writers and Artists, 1984
• Breathing Space, Coromandel, 1986
• Elegy for Barry Mitcalfe, Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop, 1987
• How to Eat a Hot Dog on the Main Street of Thames, E.S.A.W. 1990
• Michelangelo Dreams, Puriri Press, 1997
• Love Songs for the Dead, Puriri press, 1998
• The Titirangi Poets, Vol. 1 & 3 (editor)
• El Milagro de Medellin y otros poemas, Casa Nueva, 2002