Poets/Writers

Ron Whitehead, Lifetime Beat Poet Laureate (Gonzo Mentor)

Poet, writer, editor, publisher, scholar, professor, activist, Wizard, Ron Whitehead grew up on a farm in Kentucky. He attended The University of Louisville and Oxford University. As poet and writer he is the recipient of numerous state, national, and international awards and prizes including The All Kentucky Poetry Prize, The Yeats Club of Oxford’s Prize for Poetry, and many others. In 2006 Dr. John Rocco (NYC) nominated Ron for The Nobel Prize in Literature. He was inducted into his high school’s (Ohio County High) Hall of Fame, representing his 1968 graduating class.

Ron has edited and published the works of such luminaries as His Holiness The Dalai Lama, President Jimmy Carter, Hunter S. Thompson, Thomas Merton, Jack Kerouac, John Updike, Wendell Berry, Andy Warhol, Yoko Ono, BONO, Allen Ginsberg, Hunter S. Thompson, William S. Burroughs, Rita Dove, Douglas Brinkley, Robert Hunter, Amiri Baraka, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and hundreds more.

Ron has produced over 2,000 Arts Events, Happenings, and Festivals throughout Europe and the USA. He has performed thousands of shows around the world with some of the best musicians and bands on the planet. Ron’s work has been translated into nearly 20 languages. He is the author of 30 books and 40 albums. His newest books include MAMA: a poet’s heart in a kentucky girl (Transmission Press/Indiana), blistered asphalt on dixie highway: Kentucky Basketball is Poetry in Motion (Finishing Line Press/Kentucky), Quest for Self in the Ocean of Consciousness: Ibsen, Hamsun, Munch, Joyce: The Origins of Modernism and Expressionism (Cook Creative/Kentucky), DISOBEY (Underground Books/NYC), “I’d Never Shoot a Man While He’s Washing Dishes: Arcturian Love Songs (Long Steel Rail Press/Kentucky), A TAOIST NUN TEACHES ME IN 14 DREAMS (Underground Books/NYC). His three newest albums (all three with sonaBLAST Records/Kentucky) are PRAYER, with Harry PIckens on piano and Aaron West on violin, THE STORM GENERATION MANIFESTO & Other Rock n Roll Poems, and DRAGONS, both with The Storm Generation Band. His next books, KENTUCKY BOUND: poems, stories, and songs (TransMission Press) and “Death Threats, Hunter S. Thompson and The Dalai Lama” (Underground Books/NYC), along with his next album, Songs and Poems from The KENTUCKY BOUND Concert (sonaBLAST! Records) will be released November 17th.

To book Ron Whitehead for performances, reading, and speaking engagements contact:
503 W. Francis Avenue
Clarksville, Indiana
47129

For autographed books & spoken word/music recordings, follow this link:
https://trancemission-press.square.site/

Please consider joining his Patreon! He has a plethora of info about the Liberal Arts there, and you can keep up with him personally and all of his current/past projects.
https://www.patreon.com/RonWhitehead/posts

I’ve kept myself hidden for so long. Brother Ron helped me come out of my shell. I am eternally grateful to him for doing so, and for spearheading Gonzofest for so many years. I’d gladly pick up the torch if you made the call. Honored to call you a friend. But you’re more than that. You’re a goddamn Gonzo Wizard, Living Legend, and you will forever be my biggest inspiration & mentor.

His book Adventures of Brain Man was published by Cajun Mutt Press (October 2021)