In his sixth poetry collection, Lance Larsen reminds us we are all travelers, bedraggled and tired but curious. Whether by train or on foot, whether exploring London or a suburban backyard or a childhood memory involving cuckoo clocks, the poet revels not in ticking off a successful arrival but in the jostlings of the journey. As Elizabeth Bishop once said: “Homemade, homemade, but aren’t we all?” These poems are refreshingly improvisational: lyrical but plain spoken, always in search of what will suffice. As a collection, they might be thought of as a personal Wunderkammer, a metaphoric cabinet in which to gather the wonders that make up the funky holiness of everyday life.
Lance Larsen’s Making a Kingdom of It will be released in December 2024.
Former poet laureate of Utah, Lance Larsen grew up in the West mowing lawns, delivering newspapers, and dreaming of catching Bigfoot on film. He is the author of five previous poetry collections, all but one from University of Tampa. His work appears widely, in New York Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement, The Sun, London Magazine, APR, Best American Poetry, and elsewhere. His awards include a Pushcart Prize, The Tampa Review Prize, The Jeffrey Smith Prize from Missouri Review, the Sewanee Review Prize, the Swamp Pink Prize, The Alpine Fellowship (England), and The Moth Poetry Prize (Ireland), as well as fellowships from Ragdale, The Anderson Center, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He teaches at Brigham Young University and likes to fool around with aphorisms: “When climbing a new mountain, wear old shoes.” He is married to the painter and collage artist Jacqui Larsen. Sometimes he juggles.
Larsen’s previous collections published with the University of Tampa Press include the following: