Joseph Ridgwell

Joseph Ridgwell is a working class author who was raised on a council estate in East London. After leaving school Ridgwell worked a series of menial jobs. He has worked as a butchers boy, apprentice upholsterer, tile warehouseman, common labourer, toy salesman, carpet salesman, hospital porter, peanut vendor, telesales, and various call centres. At nineteen he was stabbed in a bar brawl and decided to leave the UK, travel the world and learn how to write. Ridgwell has lived in Cuba, Mexico, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Belize and finally Thailand where he ran a bar. Since 2011 Ridgwell has resided in Scotland.

In 2024 Ridgwell was the recipient of a Creative Scotland arts grant to write a novel - Scotland's Last Witch

In 2023 Ridgwell was the recipient of a Creative Scotland arts grant to write a novel - The Ballad of Gilder Roy

In 2022 Ridgwell was long-listed for the Moniack Mhor - Here and Now - International Writer’s Residency.

In 2021 Ridgwell was the recipient of a Royal Literary Society grant for Literary Merit.

In 2020 Ridgwell was the recipient of a Creative Scotland arts grant to write a novel - The Island.

Ridgwell Stories - published in June 2015 by New York’s Bottle of Smoke Press - was nominated for a 2016 Pushcart Prize and long-listed for the 2016 Saboteur awards.

Ridgwell’s work has also appeared in numerous anthologies. Chiron Review, Abridged, Hanzir, Dwang, Tra Ver Sees, Push, Paper & Ink, Gustave, The Dawntreader, The Arsonist etc…

In 2021 - Ridgwell’s fourth collection of short stories - The Heist & Other Tales - was published by Kilmog Press.

Also by Joseph Ridgwell

Where are the Rebels (2008)

Load the Guns (2009)

Last Days of the Cross (2009)

Lost Elation (2010)

Oswald’s Apartment (2010)

The Buddha Bar (2011)

Indonesia (2011)

The Tsanta Expedition (2011)

Fire Island (2012)

The Famous Ice-Cream Run (2013)

A Child of the Jago (2013)

Cuba (2014)

Ridgwell - Stories (2015)

Burrito Deluxe (2015)

Jamaica (2016)

Mexico (2017)

The Beach Poems (2018)

Where are the Rebels? The Cross, Last Days of the Cross, & The Buddha Bar - (2018)

L’Exaltion Perdue (2019)

She Moves Through the Fair (2020)

Wolf Star (2021)

The Heist & Other Tales (2021)

Ode to Mary Millington (2022)

Victoria (2023)

The Ballad of Gilder Roy (2024)

The Island (2024)

Scotland's Last Witch (2025)

Essex Nights (2025)

The Guru (2025)

Phone Calls with Wallingford Press (2026)