Poetry & Non-Fiction; ISBN: 978-0-9997777-2-5; Pages 318; Published July, 2021
State Line by Alan Bätjer Russo
Alan “Long Eyes” Russo was the genuine article. He was one of the most gifted members among a group of artists from the Midwest known as the “Wichita Vortex.” His legacy fell into obscurity when he passed in 2003 until a dusty bag of slips, shards, and notes surfaced from the late David Omer Bearden’s basement, titled State Line. In Russo-esque fashion, the uncouth bag fell into the hands of surviving friend, Dion Wright, to string together this cogent collection of disconnected pearls.
Unwound in a tornado of real-life stories, poems, and vignettes—Rosace Publications brings Russo’s “absences” and “negatives in reverse” to life. State Line addresses irresolution between fixed realities: the physical and the imaginative states of being. With accounts by Gerard Malanga, Bruce Conner, Charlie Plymell, Bob Branaman, and many more, this unique literary compendium uncovers notes from the man who trailblazed a distinct path between the Beats and the Hippies.
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State Line Book Trailer
Featured Poem: Saint Mary
“A STORYBOOK LIKE NO OTHER.
An engaging (shocking) great read.”
— Charlie Plymell
“Found! An unexpected manuscript from one of the central writers of the legendary Wichita Vortex. In this almost disappeared find, State Line, Russo’s uncompromising search for the world of his visions flows on and into the very core of being alive in any generation. Within these pages, a soul unbound hails us!”
— Maureen Owen
“An important work. Especially now, when authentic is so needed. Russo recognizes his friends being his heroes—they get him through—and it’s clear he does the same for them. His prose and poems play out curious, passionate, sensitive, and hot for whackshit-crazy. His honesty makes clever and intellectual writing more false than ever.”
— Benito Vila
“I think it’s really sweet how so many are caring about Alan Russo’s writings now. His writing has gone from Ozymandias to Wilde in one posthumous lifetime: Mad, bad, and dangerous to know—again. Yes to Alan Russo.”
— James Grauerholz
“This nearly three hundred pages of Alan Russo’s State Line give eloquent proof to his wide-ranging abilities expressing his genuine vital perceptions in both poetry and prose.”
— Gerd Stern
“Alan Russo helped me in my move from Wichita Kansas to San Francisco late summer 1959. Knowing Alan from there, I found the book, State Line, very well organized. The result, put together from Alan’s poems and journal writings, is amazingly coherent. It was that period between the beatniks and the hippies, full of illusions and delusions, and Alan was the tour guide. A lot of this and more is captured in his State Line.”
— Beth Pewther
“I met Alan Russo in San Francisco 1960. We bonded fast and remained close. Alan’s humor and his sense of the absurd permeate his writing. I’m hopeful that State Line gets his readily accessible and fascinating narratives out to the wider readership they deserve.”
— Michael Lewis
About the Author
Alan Bätjer Russo was born May 25, 1938 in Auburn, NY. In 1948 he moved with his family to Wichita, Kansas.
After completing high school early, he enrolled at Wichita University, where he took classes in the literary arts and befriended members of the local literary and artistic scene—including fellow students Glenn Todd, Justin Hein, Charles Plymell, Roxie Powell, and Robert Branaman.
In 1960 Alan moved to San Francisco to be followed by several of his Wichita cohorts. He subsequently published poems in a number of literary magazines and chapbooks created by Plymell, Branaman, and David Omer Bearden. In 1967-1968 he was a staff-member at the San Francisco Oracle and began working sub-rosa on a sequence of prose writings that would comprise an “autobiographical novel” he called State Line.
By the 1980’s he was living in Tulsa, Oklahoma where he supported himself by driving a cab. He passed on May 24, 2003. His death certificate noted his occupation as “Poet and Cab Driver.”