Deborah Larsen

author of Stitching Porcelain

Deborah Larsen

Deborah Larsen

Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, Ms. Larsen is the winner of the 1987 Wallace Stegner Fellowship to Stanford University. Perviously she lived in Oxford, England where she was a prizewinner in the National Poetry Competition and read her poetry for BBC Radio 3. At present, she teaches creative writing at Gettysburg College, PA.

cover image of the book Stitching Porcelain

Stitching Porcelain

Stitching Porcelain, Deborah Larsen’s first book of poetry, is a narrative-lyric sequence based on the life of Matteo Ricci, the resourceful Jesuit who entered China in 1583 and stayed for a quarter century. Pondering cultural accommodation as well as faith, many of the poems center on actual events: Ricci’s dressing as a Buddhist; his awe-inspiring map (with China shrewdly centered); his prostration before an empty Dragon Throne. Other events the poet imagined. With a felicity rare in a debut volume, Larsen’s opalescent poetry works in perfect counterpoint to the strange and brilliant Ricci.

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