Lance Larsen joins Timothy Green on The Rattlecast to celebrate Secretary of the Invisible Thing, one of the three winners of the 2026 Rattle Chapbook Prize. A former Poet Laureate of Utah, Larsen is the author of six full-length poetry collections, including Making a Kingdom of It, What the Body Knows, and Genius Loci. His poems have appeared in Poetry, The New York Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement, The Southern Review, and elsewhere, and his honors include a Pushcart Prize and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
In this episode, we’ll read from Secretary of the Invisible Thing and talk about poetry, humor, faith, mystery, and Larsen’s gift for finding the strange and sacred in ordinary life. We’ll also discuss the craft behind his playful, image-rich poems, how lived experience becomes something larger through imagination, and what it means to win the Rattle Chapbook Prize. As always, we’ll open the lines for this week’s prompt-based poetry reading.
Find the winning chapbook here:
https://rattle.com/publications/secretary-of-the-invisible-thing/
This Week’s Prompt from Katie Dozier:
Write a poem about a specific wild animal. Include as many tactile details as possible.
Next Week’s Prompt:
Time to pair up! Send one line of your own poetry to a poet and ask for one in return. Write your own poem that utilizes their line, and give them credit for it.
Submit your poem through Submittable by midnight Sunday for a chance to be invited on the show:
https://rattle.submittable.com/submit/269309/rattlecast-prompt-poems-online
The Rattlecast livestreams every Monday on YouTube, Facebook, and X, then becomes available as an audio podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen.
