Ron Riddell has worked as a teacher, editor and bookseller and has performed his work in many festivals and cultural venues around the world, including The Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Harbourfront (Canada), El Festival Internacional de Poesia de Medellin (Colombia), El Festival Internacional de Poesia de Cartagena (Colombia), The Austin International Poetry Festival (U.S.A.), El Encuentro Internacional de Poetas (El Salvador), International Poetry Festival in Costa Rica, Festival de Poesia de Bogota and Chilepoesia in Santiago, Chile. In Auckland in the 1970s Riddell founded The Titirangi Poets and later in the 1990s established a haven for poets with the Live Poets' Cafe which adjoined the Dead Poets Bookshop in Karangahape Road. In Wellington he founded The Wellington International Poetry Festival. A painter, musician and the author of a number of plays and novels, he has published twenty-one collections of verse.