State Line: Collected Poems and Other Writings

Russo, Alan Bätjer

ISBN 10: 0999777726 / ISBN 13: 9780999777725

Published by Rosace Publications, 2021

About this Item

Seller Inventory # I-9780999777725

Bibliographic Details

• Title: State Line: Collected Poems and Other Writings
• Publisher: Rosace Publications
• Publication Date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0999777726
• ISBN 13: 9780999777725
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

“The jewel is in the lotus, but you can’t get there from here.”

Alan “Long Eyes” Russo was the genuine article. He was one of the most gifted members among a group of artists from the Midwest known as the “Wichita Vortex.” His legacy fell into obscurity when he passed in 2003 until a dusty bag of slips, shards, and notes surfaced from the late David Omer Bearden’s basement, titled State Line. In Russo-esque fashion, the uncouth bag fell into the hands of surviving friend, Dion Wright, to string together this cogent collection of disconnected pearls.

Unwound in a tornado of real-life stories, poems, and vignettes—Rosace Publications brings Russo’s “absences” and “negatives in reverse” to life. State Line addresses irresolution between fixed realities: the physical and the imaginative states of being. With accounts by Gerard Malanga, Bruce Conner, Charlie Plymell, Bob Branaman, and many more, this unique literary compendium uncovers notes from the man who trailblazed a distinct path between the Beats and the Hippies.

About the Author

Alan Bätjer Russo was born May 25, 1938 in Auburn, NY. In 1948 he moved with his family to Wichita, Kansas.

After completing high school early, he enrolled at Wichita University, where he took classes in the literary arts and befriended members of the local literary and artistic scene—including fellow students Glenn Todd, Justin Hein, Charles Plymell, Roxie Powell, and Robert Branaman.

In 1960 Alan moved to San Francisco to be followed by several of his Wichita cohorts. He subsequently published poems in a number of literary magazines and chapbooks created by Plymell, Branaman, and David Omer Bearden. In 1967-1968 he was a staff-member at the San Francisco Oracle and began working sub-rosa on a sequence of prose writings that would comprise an "autobiographical novel" he called State Line.

By the 1980's he was living in Tulsa, Oklahoma where he supported himself by driving a cab. He passed on May 24, 2003. His death certificate noted his occupation as "Poet and Cab Driver."

For more information about Alan Bätjer Russo, please visit:rosacepublications.com