Pavement (Paperback or Softback)

Winner of the 2016 Blue Light Poetry Prize

Rustin Larson's poetry has appeared in The New Yorker, The Iowa Review, North American Review, Poetry East, Saranac Review, Poets & Artists and other magazines. He is the author of The Wine-Dark House (Blue Light Press, 2009) and Crazy Star (selected for the Loess Hills Book's Poetry Series in 2005). Larson won 1st Editor's Prize from Rhino Magazine in 2000 and has won prizes for his poetry from The National Poet Hunt and The Chester H. Jones Foundation among others. A seven-time Pushcart nominee, and graduate of the Vermont College MFA in Writing, Larson was an Iowa Poet at The Des Moines National Poetry Festival in 2002 & 2004, a featured writer in the DMACC Celebration of the Literary Arts in 2007 & 2008, and he was a featured poet at the Poetry at Round Top Festival in May 2012.

“Even for Rustin Larson, a master of invention, Pavement breaks into new territory. “This aquarium / I swim in every day / funded in part by / the Martian government. . .”  I love the images he chooses, where he goes with them, and the way he transforms them. “a dance I attend / only in my imagination / and then only / as 2nd alto sax. . .”  So much in these lines and so much underneath them. “an otherwise blackened / stage within which / the dance of the silver / gypsies begins.”  Brilliant writing, a delight on every page, a joy to read! “the celestial City / of Wonders / thrown open coldly, / but / with such pulsing beauty.”

—Diane Frank, Author of Canon for Bears and Ponderosa Pines

“Larson writes like an angel, but one who’s willing to work both sides of the street.”

—John Peterson, Wapsipinicon Almanac

“Rustin Larson wrote these poems, while wearing a grease stained tee shirt. I wish to buy this guy a collection of fat notebooks, because I want him to keep writing. By the way, he does not know that the cricket crawling up his leg, wants a taste of the ice cream sandwich he ate yesterday. He’ll share, he always does. How do I know? I know, because, he’s so generous. If you’re from Ottumwa, you got it, and don’t need to read these poems. Otherwise, buy this book, or you’ll never know how to put bat wings on a minivan.”

—Ibu Robin Lim, Author of The Geometry of Splitting Souls 

“Like Odysseus, Larson has been trying to find his way home, or at least to redefine that home. Larson’s vehicle for his journey is the process of writing itself, which he has dedicated himself to and which he knows can be both circuitous and serendipitous. But the writer who pursues his craft, like Odysseus who pursues the journey home, must have patience. . . the poet and his journey are one.”

—Stephen Schneider, Pirene’s Fountain

“Each poem in Larson’s book is packed with as much detail as a short story.  The narrator often alludes to literary works, famous as well as infamous people, easily identifiable locations on the globe, and renowned historical events that either relate to the poems thematically, or place the memories in history for the reader. The poems do not adhere to any one form, but rather, they take form as their contents require. Larson’s writing style is multifarious.”

—Stephen Page, Buenos Aires Herald

“From moment to moment, Larson is surrealistic, Proustian, stand-up-comedy funny, dead serious, sad, ecstatic, deadpan.  In Larson’s multitude of stories and modes, there’s always some layer of the writer concerned with craft, with metawriting. . . Write on, Rustin, write on.”

—Vince Gotera, North American Review