A Handbook for Writers
New & Selected Prose Poems
"Sounding at times like plot summaries of stories by John Cheever that Cheever never got around to writing and at other times like witty fables, or meditations on the tricks of language, Vern Rutsala’s wonderful prose paragraphs are at all times rewarding journeys into the inner life, the secret life of three o’clock in the morning, when everyday defeats acquire a weird glamour and heroism."—Charles Baxter
Vern Rutsala, a professor at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, has published nine previous collections of his poetry. He has won numerous prizes for his work, including the Juniper Prize, and has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Oregon Masters and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Born in 1934 in Idaho, Rutsala received his B.A. from Reed College and an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa. Nine books and four chapbooks of his poetry have been published, and over 700 poems have appeared in journals and anthologies. He's won numerous prizes including the Carolyn Kizer Poetry Prize, the Oregon Book Award, a Pushcart Prize, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Oregon Masters, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He teaches at Lewis and Clark College.
