Lance Larsen

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Poet Laureate of Utah, 2012–2017
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Lance Larsen grew up in Idaho and Colorado. He received a PhD from the University of Houston in 1993.

Larsen is the author of six poetry collections: Making a Kingdom of It (University of Tampa Press, 2024), What the Body Knows (University of Tampa Press, 2018), Genius Loci (University of Tampa Press, 2013); Backyard Alchemy (University of Tampa Press, 2009); In All Their Animal Brilliance (University of Tampa Press, 2005), winner of the Tampa Review Prize for Poetry; and Erasable Walls (New Issues, 1998).

Of Larsen’s poems, the poet Alberto Ríos writes, “These small, smart treasures dazzle us every time. Deceptively simple observational moments offer themselves up with such inviting clarity that we are, to our benefit, startled by a world turned around in the hand.”

In 2012, Larsen was named to a five-year term as the poet laureate of Utah. He has also received a Pushcart Prize and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, among other grants and awards. He currently serves as the chair of the Department of English at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.