Featured August 21, 1999 and May 19, 2007

Acclaimed poet and author, Rutsala's work is also praised for its accessibility; "Singular as his poems may be, one never doubts that the author is one of us. In his methods, he has never abandoned the idea of a poetry accessible to a great audience," says poet Marvin Bell. "Some poets are poets only when it suits them," said Bell, who met Rutsala in the 1950s when both were graduate students at the University of Iowa. "But Vern is a poet every day. He has an eye for the extraordinary in the routine, which is to say the gist of human reality."

Rutsala's work is described by Ashland Poetry Press; "Scintillating visions of life, home, work, and family expressed in accessible language through which the poet magnifies daily events into art."