Ken Pardue
I've had poems published in California Quarterly, Borderlands, The Texas Observer, two anthologies of Texas poetry, and many other publications. My essays have appeared in The Texas Observer, San Antonio Express-News, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Dallas Peace Times, Still Crazy, and Fort Worth Weekly. Stories of mine have been in Lynx Eye, Hardboiled, Verdad Magazine, Scrivener's Pen, SouthLit.com, Amarillo Bay, and The Write Room. In 1994 I was a juried poet in the Houston Poetry Fest, and in 2004 my chapbook was a semi-finalist in a Winnow Press contest. That same chapbook earned a finalist designation for a Dobie Paisano Fellowship. Also, it was twice a finalist for Dallas Poets Community chapbook contest, and in April 2011 I was a featured poet at their First Friday Reading. In 2012, I won the Sid. W. Richardson Foundation's Educator's Award so I could attend the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference. Also, I was one of 4 runner-ups for The Texas Observer’s 2013 short story contest, judged by Dagoberto Gilb. My poem "Those Old Fans of my Youth" earned an Honorable Mention in the 2013 DPC Poetry Contest.
Short Story Publications
"Just Part and parcel of the Glorious Fabric of the Universe," Concho River Review, Fall/Wiinter 2020.
"Small Dr. Pepper," Me First, October 21, 2020.
"Yellow Leaves Dropping from on High," New Texas, September 20, 2020.
"Answers," Panther city Review, November 2019.
"What You Learn in the Fullness of Time," Panther City Review, Auguat 2018.
“Sighs,” Amarillo Bay, February 2016.
“Fire in Galveston, Texas Observer web-site, September 10-16/2013.
“The Sojourners,” The Write Room, March, 2012.
“Pure Mystery,” The Write Room, March, 2011.
“Finding Bliss, Finally,”Verdad Magazine , Fall 2010
“Wednesday Treat,” SouthLit.com, July 2006.
“You Got Money for Gas?” Hardboiled, Spring 2006.
“The Good Neighbor,” Lynx Eye, Fall 2005.
“The Lord’s Will,” Scrivener’s Pen, 10/31/04-1/30/05.
“Under the Bridge,” Armadillo, Maverick Press, 1997.
Non-fiction Publications
The G(OP)rinch that Stole Democracy, Op-ed News, December 17, 2016.
2020: Welcome to Dystopian America: Like Us, But Only Worse, Op-ed News, September 16, 2016.
A Husband's Case for Physician-assisted Suicide, Op-ed News, August 17, 2016.
Beware the Coming Zombie Republican Apocalypse!, Op-ed News, July 23, 2016.
An Open-Letter to Speaker Ryan: The People's House, Really?, Op-ed News, July 2, 2016.
“Lost in Hospitallandia,” Fort Worth Weekly, March 11, 2015.
“Owning Up,” Fort Worth Weekly, December 22, 2014.
“Apocalypse by Apathy,” Fort Worth Weekly, November 19, 2014.
“Trail Trouble in River City,” Fort Worth Weekly, October 29, 2014.
“The Unbearable Lightness of Being White,” Fort Worth Weekly, September 3, 2014.
“Dubya's Glory Days?” Op-ed News, June 17, 2014.
“Regreening the Shrub,” Fort Worth Weekly, June 4, 2014.
“Waiting Impatience,” Fort Worth Weekly, April 9, 2014.
“Getting off the High Horse,” Fort Worth Weekly, March 5, 2014.
“A True Child of the Sixties (or at least Sixties Pop Culture), Still Crazy, January 2014.
“Keystone Election Kops,” Fort Worth Weekly, December 12, 2013.
“Lighting Up: Fort Worth, Voter ID Law & Willie, Op-ed News, November 28, 2013.
“August Angst,” Fort Worth Weekly, August 29, 2013.
“Dad from U.N.C.L.E.,” Fort Worth Weekly, June 19, 2013.
“The Step Down Revolution of Ted Cruz,” Op-ed News, August 8, 2012.
“Not all Texans are idiots: A Tribute to Annette Sanford,” Op-ed News, July 12, 2012.
“On Teaching,” Op-ed News, May 7, 2012.
“Governor Vaginal Probe or Why I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Stupid Laws,” Op-ed News, March 22, 2012.
“Blowback? Will 2012 be our Year of Living Dangerously?” Op-ed News, January 1, 2012.
“Dubya is Illegal: Full Frontal Hypocrisy with a Texas Twang,” Op-ed News, November 20, 2011.
“Rick Perry's Texas: No Miracles Here,” Op-ed News, September 18, 2011.
“The Broken Government,” Op-ed News, September 6, 2011.
“Clinging to Life . . .,” FWST, July 28, 2009.
“Appreciating the Here and Now,” KERA’s This I Believe (web-site), February 21, 2007.
“A Weak Constitution: From the Red to the Rio Grande, our state’s basic legal document stinks,” FW Weekly, February 15, 2006.
“Democracy of a Different Flavor: Proportional Representation could cure voter apathy,” FW Weekly, July 20, 2005.
“It a Retro Kinda Thang: Analogies to Vietnam Are Just a Liberal Plot,” FW Weekly, May 19, 2004.
“The Art of Fishing: A Teacher’s Haunted by the One He Threw Back,” FW Weekly, March 17, 2004.
“US Military: ‘overlook’ has replaced oversight,” Dallas Peace Times, Feb.-March 2004.
“Constitutional Do-over: Why a 1789 Guide for a 2003 Nation?” FW S-T, June 1, 2003.
“The Cost of Empire,” Dallas Peace Times, Oct & Nov. 2002.
“The Real Roots of the Middle Eastern Conflict,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram (FW S-T), June 3, 2002.
“Five Reasons I am Against This War,” Nevertheless: A Texas Church Review, April 2002.
“How Did I Object to the War? Let Me Count the Ways,” FW S-T, February 25, 2002.
“Easing Immigrant Families’ Lives Would Help Students,” FW S-T, July 29, 2001.
“As I Went Out One Morning,” FW S-T, on-line guest column, May 17, 2000 -May 11, 2001.
“Under the Dictatorship of Ghosts,” FW S-T, on-line guest cyber-column, March 22, 1999 to April 5, 1999.
“Jonah: A Story For Our Time,” Nevertheless, June 24, 1997.
“A Dialogical Approach to Persuasive Writing,” NOTES Plus: A Quarterly of Practical Teaching Ideas,” April 1991.
“Choosing the Poet Laureate: Andrei Condrescu,” English Journal, November 1990.
“You Don’t Need a Weatherman,” The Texas Observer, February 10, 1989.
“Vengeance Never Worth Worshiping,” San Antonio Express-News (SA E-N), January 19, 1986.
“Widen Education Debate; Include High-tech, Future,” SA E-N, August 1985.
“Education Isn’t Only For the Elite,” SA E-N, February 19, 1984.
Poetry Publications
“Global Warming,” Amarillo Bay, April 2017.
“When You're a Kid,” Front Porch Review, January 2017.
“Love Song for the Terminally Maladjusted,” redrivereview.com, November 2016.
“Hitchhiking in Wisconsin, May 1979” and “Insomnia Poem #23,” Illya's Honey, Fall 2016.
“Living and Dying in Real Time,” Cattlemen & Cadillacs, September 2016.
“What I Did Not Tell You,” Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, Number 44, 2016.May 14, 2016.
“Bray Auto Parts (Houston, Texas, circa 1976)” and “The Year I Stopped Enjoying Seeing My Wife Naked,” redriverreview.org, May 2016.
“A Fire: Galveston, 1965,” Amarillo Bay, February 2016
“No Where Near,” Front Porch Review, January 2016.
“At 10” and “Always Lost,” Illya's Honey, Winter 2016.
“Cafeteria Wars,” “Visiting My Mom,” and “I Miss,” Wilderness House Literary Review, October 2015.
“Cicatrix,” Illya's Honey, Summer 2015.
“In Front of La Gare de Lyon,” redriverreview.org, May 2015.
“Where to Begin My Memoir?” & “I Wish I Were,” redriverreview.org, August 2014.
“My Little Sister,” Illya's Honey, Summer 2014.
“In Real Life,” “It is the Purest Pain When I See You Now,” “Negative Space,” & “Genealogy,” Wilderness House Literary Review, July 2014.
“Walking Through Chinatown, June, 1976,” My Favorite Bullet, February 2014.
“The Memphis Bus Station August 1980,” “En Un Estacion de Metro,” “The Rust That Runs in our Blood,” & “Family Lore,” Ginosko, January 2014.
“Big Grandma,” redriverreview.com, November 2013.
“Those Old Fans of My Youth,” Illya's Honey, Fall 2013.
“The Blue Guitarist” and “It Is What It Is,” The Blue Lake Review, March 2013.
“about:home,” Front Porch Review, October 2012.
“Some Errant Clouds,” Bolts of Silk, October 2012.
“No Casseroles,” Amarillo Bay, May 2012.
“An Old Fart Remembers,” redriverreview.com, November 2010.
Stop Reading this Poem! redrivereview.com, August 2010.
“Last Poem for My Mother,” Texas Poetry Calendar 2011.
“Bedbugs,” “Revenge Fantasies,” and “Ken the Obscure,” Illya’s Honey, Spring/Summer 2010.
“What a Thing to See,” Oakbend Review, May/June 2009
“La Isla de Malhado,” Texas Poetry Calendar 2010, June 2009.
“Weeding the Family Plot,” “A Thousand Moons,” and “Freeing the Fireflies,” Big Land, Big Sky, Big Hair: Best of Texas Poetry Calendar, 2009.
“My Mother’s Problem” and “Living and Dying in Real Time,” Texas Observer, October 31, 2008.
“A Memory of Water,” Main Channel Voices, Fall 2008.
“Life in the Sad City,” Borderlands, Fall/Winter 2007
“The Bad Year,” redriverreview.com, Aug. 2007
“What’s Beneath,” miller’s pond, Spring 2007.
“What We Prefer,” Wavelength 14, Spring 2007.
“This Happiness,” Illya’s Honey, Fall/Winter 2006.
“The Tip of My Tongue,” White Pelican Review, Fall 2006.
“What Are You?” Barbaric Yawp, May 2006.
“The Cost of Empire” & “Professor Poets,” theangrypoet.com, 12/16/2005
“The Day She Couldn’t Use the Phone” and “The Peaceable Fridge,” November 2005, redriverreview.com
“A Face in the Window,” Blind Man’s Rainbow, Spring 2005.
“A Thousand Moons” and “Freeing the Fireflies,” Texas Poetry Calendar 2005.
“The Art of Love,” Urban Spaghetti, Feb. 2004.
“Dante in the Divine Comedy,” Pitchfork, Fall 2003.
“The Cost of Empire” (Selected as one of the Poems of the Day) & “Revelation on a Plain Jar,” poetsagainstthewar.org, 9/28/2003.
“Literary Study: Tragedy” & “Multiple Guesses,” The Blindman’s Rainbow, Summer 2003.
“A New Theory on the Dynamics of Human Bodies,” Taproot Literary Review, Summer 2003.
“Lost,” Texas Poetry Calendar, 2003.
“Mexican Bus,” Anthology, Nov. & Dec. 2002.
“Ballad of a Careful Man” & “On Time & Plastic,” The Blind Man’s Rainbow, Summer 2002.
“More Than We Can Bear,” Anthology, July/August 2001.
“No Yeast” and “Fantasy Interrupted by Reality,” The Blind Man’s Rainbow, 2001.
“This Gift,” Pitchfork, Spring 2001.
“Weeding the Family Plot,” 1999 Texas Poetry Calendar, Flying Cow Productions, 1998.
“Seeds,” Concho River Review, 1998.
“Hot,” Jackrabbit, Maverick Press (MP), April 1996.
“Piss Poor Prayer,” Poetry Motel, 1995.
“My Mother,” Houston Poetry Fest, 1994.
“My Mother,” Preying Mantis (MP), November 1994.
“Lost Bodies,” California Quarterly, 1994.
“Tales of Huffman,” Culebra, (MP), 1993.
“Something Unspoken,” Touchstone 1986.
“In the Backyard,” Sulphur River Poetry Review, 1981.
‘Wind Break Trees,” “To a Skylark,” “Not Like Me,” “The Torn Screen Door,” and “The Cup and Pitcher,” Sleepy Tree I: A Collection of Poetry and Fiction, 1980.
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