Ken Waldman

Most recent news: Ken's debut novel, Now Entering Alaska Time, officially came out June 1, 2022 amid a successful six-week tour of Alaska. He followed it with jobs from Elko, Nevada to Tallahassee, Florida. In August, he was in Edmonton for the big fringe festival there, and then it was on to Calgary for a conference, a gig in Galesburg, another conference in Toledo. He also released three CDs simultaneously in July, including one to go with the book.

The first week of October he was back in Alaska, and then it was on to Washington state and Kansas (that tour he visited three elementary schools, two middle schools, two preschools, a high school, a community college, several senior centers and assisted living homes, a university reading series, and did a ticketed show sponsored by an arts council) before making it to Louisiana for Blackpot Camp and Festival.

Mid November, he appeared at a small press bookfair in Huntsville AL, then did a Thanksgiving weekend set at the iconic Whirlybird near Lafayette LA (joined by the equally iconic Hogie Siebert, as well as Jason Norris and Stella Lyn Norris), and then it was December jobs in and around Alamagordo NM and Moab UT. 

Mid January, Ken joined forces with Danielle Devlin of Canis Major Music to co-produce a big Roots and Global Music Showcase Evening, Starry Nights (Northern Lights), in conjunction with the big APAP conference in NYC. Then he was in Slidell LA for a week in schools (working with kindergartners through high school seniors), and then it's Folk Alliance in Kansas City before another West Coast trip. It's an exciting time, even if uncertain. Lots of driving! Lots of serendipities and synchronicities too. What's next? We'll see!

His twelve CDs of old-time Appalachian-style string-band music include two for children.

His twenty books consist of sixteen full-length poetry collections, a memoir about his life as a touring artist, a volume of
acrostic poems for kids, and a hybrid book that's part creative writing manual, part memoir, part full-length collection of
poems (about writers and writing). And there's his twentieth, the novel.

A former college professor with an MFA in Creative Writing, he's been a visiting writer at nearly 100 colleges and universities,
a visiting artist at over 240 schools in 35 states, and has led workshops from Alaska to Maine.

As a performer, he's played from the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage to the Woodford Folk Festival (Queensland, Australia),
occasionally as a soloist, more often as leader of one of his ever-changing troupes of nationally recognized musicians.

Here's more about the music, the writing, the children's programs, and how they're all coming together under the broader
umbrella of Nomadic Productions.

Highlights? Here's his essay in the Sept./Oct. 2015 issue of Poets & Writers magazine.

2017-2021, Ridgeway Press of Roseville, Michigan published eight of Ken's books. It's a special project.

Below, a pair of  8 1/2-minute video samplers featuring eight acts from his 2016 and 2017 Manhattan to Moose Pass roots
music variety shows, an evening he produces annually in conjunction with January's APAP conference in NYC. In the middle,
Ken Waldman with Willi Carlisle as part of a Ken Waldman & The Wild Ones show at Chico Performances in spring 2019
where Ken was joined by four other musicians.