Larry Sawyer was a poet, essayist, and fiction writer. His books of poetry include Daylight Hammer (mother’s milk press, 2021), Breaking Lorca (White Hole Press, 2014), Vertigo Diary (Blaze VOX, 2013), Unable to Fully California (Otoliths Press, 2010), A Chaise Lounge in Hell (aboveground press, 2003), as well as other collections. Sawyer’s final collection The Blue Butterfly will be published posthumously by Guernica in 2027.

His work has been included in anthologies including A Writers’ Congress: Chicago Poets on Barack Obama’s Inauguration (DePaul Humanities Center Press, 2009); and The City Visible: Chicago Poetry for the New Century (Cracked Slab Books, 2008).

Sawyer ran the Myopic Books Poetry series in Chicago for 15 years between 2005 and 2019. He taught poetry and served as the co-director of the Chicago School of Poetics, where visiting instructors included Pierre Joris, Eileen Myles, Charles Bernstein, and Ron Silliman. Sawyer was also the editor of milk magazine for 25 years and a former editor of Nexus magazine. When he moved to Toronto, he launched the milk magazine reading series at Type Books which ran from 2021 to 2024.

As a testament to his work in the Chicago poetry community, a Chicago Reader readers’ poll awarded him “Best Poet” in Chicago. And in 2013, he was named by The Huffington Post as one of 200 Top Advocates for Poetry in America. 

After moving to Canada with his longtime collaborator, partner, and fellow poet, Lina Ramona Vitkauskas, Sawyer was a member of the League of Canadian Poets for 4 years.

Larry Sawyer died at age 54 in February 2025 in Toronto, Ontario.