"Sounding at times like plot summaries of stories by John Cheever that Cheever never got around to writing and at other times like witty fables, or meditations on the tricks of language, Vern Rutsala’s wonderful prose paragraphs are at all times rewarding journeys into the inner life, the secret life of three o’clock in the morning, when everyday defeats acquire a weird glamour and heroism."—Charles Baxter

Vern Rutsala, a professor at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, has published nine previous collections of his poetry. He has won numerous prizes for his work, including the Juniper Prize, and has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Oregon Masters and the National Endowment for the Arts.