Richard Hedderman

Southeast Wisconsin Festival of Books

Richard has been selected to judge the adult poetry contest for the 2025 Southeast Wisconsin Festival of Books. The contest opens in August, and winners will be honored at the Festival on November 7^th. Submission details will be announced soon.

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a catalog of small machines features “August – Red mound, WI”

Richard’s poem, “Late August—Red Mound, WI,” is now live in the anthology A Catalog of Small Machines, published by Wisconsin’s Driftless Writing Center. Thanks to editor Mark MacAllister for including my work, as well as that of poet friends Chris Rundblad and DeWitt Clinton, the first time the three of us have had poems featured in the same publication.

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New Writers.com Course

Starting in February, Richard will be teaching his first course for Writers.com. Founded in 1995, Writers.com is the first creative writing institution established on the internet. In this six-week course, Write Your First Chapbook: A Beginning Poets Guide, Richard will lead students in an exploration of poetry fundamentals and development of foundational skills as they work to polish poems-in-progress and assemble a chapbook manuscript. For more details, or to register for the class click here.

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New Creative Writing Faculty Position At Mount Mary university

Richard is now on the faculty at Mount Mary University, teaching Creative Writing with the English Department. Many thanks are due to Dr. Wendy Weaver, Associate Professor of English and Humanities Division Chair, for bringing him on board.

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Stone Poetry Quarterly is featuring “Canticle for the New Moon”

Richard is pleased to announce that Stone Poetry Quarterly has published his poem “Canticle for the New Moon” (December ’22 Poem-of-the-Month) in its May online issue which is now live. Stone Poetry Quarterly publishes poetry ranging from the visceral to the cerebral across a full scope of human experience and awareness. They publish poems reflecting a diversity of contemporary perspectives, and well-crafted, artistic explorations of language, subject, and image. Many thanks to D Ward Hey, founding editor, for honoring his work.

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New Pushcart Prize Nomination Announced

Richard is pleased to announce his fourth nomination for a Pushcart Prize, an American literary award sponsored by Pushcart Press, that recognizes the best poetry, short fiction, essays, and other genres in the previous calendar year. Many thanks to Pushcart publisher Bill Henderson, and contributing editor Nancy Takacs for honoring his work.

“Geese in November” voted as favorite Piece in Spank the Carp

Richard’s poem “Geese in November,” received the most votes for the favorite piece in Issue #86 of Spank the Carp literary journal. As such, he will be honored with an author profile in the journal’s next issue. Spank the Carp is an enduring, iconic journal which, according to its website, publishes “unique, thought-provoking fiction and poetry that isn’t obscure or pretentious.” Keep an eye out for the profile in Issue #87, scheduled for an August release.

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Gargoyle literary magazine will Include “Postcard from Kyoto”

Richard’s poem, “Postcard from Kyoto,” has been accepted for publication with venerated D.C. literary magazine Gargoyle. Founded in 1976, the journal has been lauded by former U.S. poet laureate Rita Dove, and Washington Post Book World, which deemed it “Washington’s preeminent literary magazine.” Many thanks to founding editor Richard Peabody for honoring his work.

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Recent Poetry Reading in MIlwaukee

Richard was the featured reader on February 16th for Tabi Po! Poetry’s monthly Poetry Series/Open Mic at County Clare Irish Inn and Pub. The event is free and open to all. Tabi Po! supports poets and poetry in Milwaukee. Thanks to Amanda Reavey and Sean Copeland for their gracious hosting.

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Stone Canoe literary Journal to publish Two Poems

Two of Richard’s poems, “Deathbed Confession” and “Yes”, have been accepted for publication with Stone Canoe literary journal. Lauded by renowned author George Saunders as, “a constant force for good on the American literary landscape,” Stone Canoe publishes the literature and visual art of current and former residents of New York State. Many thanks to Executive Editor, Philip Memmer, for honoring his work.

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BramBle Literary Magazine has published “Sleet”

Bramble, the literary magazine of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, published Richard’s prose poem, “Sleet,” (his February ’24 Poem-of-the-Month) in its summer 2024 issue. Many thanks to founder and Guest Editor, C. Kubasta, for selecting this poem.

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New Poem in Santa Fe Literary Review

Richard’s poem, “Shell,” based on the photograph “Truck Stop Shell” by Greg Clary, is featured in the current issue of Santa Fe Literary Review. An in-print journal, SFLR is published annually by Santa Fe Community College, and features work by national and international writers and artists. Many thanks to Editor Kate McCahill for honoring Richard’s work.

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Richard’s Latest Book: Choosing a Stone (2020)

Choosing a Stone is a hymn, my hymn, a canticle to this planet – our home base – and everything I know about the living, the non-human, and the abiotic forces that shape our common history here. For me, each poem in the book is a cairn, a stack of weather-worn rocks marking a path through an interior landscape, and across the dark plain of human mystery to a place of infinite revelation and surprise.

Order it at Amazon or Finishing Line Press.

Feeling grateful to novelist John Galligan for his endorsement of the book: “Fantastic work. Deep and rich and polished. I’m savoring the poems one at a time, that’s how good they are.”

From “The Discovery of Heaven”

Then heaven became a place

to lie down in for an hour,
with the long summer sun on our faces,

amid the drone of bees in a tended garden,
and above us the vitreous savannas of cloud.

Photo of Richard by Darren Hauck

Photo of Richard by Darren Hauck