Vern Rutsala is a native of McCall Idaho and for the last forty years a resident of Portland Oregon.  He took his B.A. at Reed College and an M. F. A. in creative writing at the Iowa Writer's Workshop. Most of his career teaching creative writing was spent at  Lewis & Clark College, though he also taught briefly at  the University of Minnesota and University of Idaho aa well as other universities. During his distinguished career, he has earned a Guggenheim Award, two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, the Pushcart Prize, the Nortwest Poetry Prize and the Oregon Book Award, among others.  He has published more than fifteen books of poetry that characterize people, places and daily experience in the American heartland. The most recent are The Moment's Equation (2004), A Handbook for Writers: New and Selected Prose Poems (2004) and How We Spent Our Time (2006). 

• Aliens (August 2009) 6 ½” x 5 ½” prose poem with photographs by John Digby.
• Going to China (September 2009) 8 ½” x  5 ½” prose poem with cover and illustrations by John Digby
• Hat Trick (October 2009) 7” x 7” three prose poems with e-hon cover an collages by John Digby
• The Girl Who Could Fly (November 2009) prose poem with illustrations by Linda Vi Vona
• Asking Directions (January 2010) 6" x 7"  five prose poems with collages by John Digby
• The Emperor of Antarctica (February 2010) 6 ½” x 5 ½” prose poem with cover and 2 illustrations by John Digby
• Like a Chaos Just For Me (March 2010), 7 ½” x 5 ½”  7 prose poems with cover and 8 illustrations by John Digby

Gallery of Work