About Jim

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Jim Gustafson is the author of three books of poetry: Friar Fred’s Diary (Big Table 2018), Unassisted Living (Big Table 2017), Driving Home (Aldrich Press 2013). His poems have appeared in Rattle, Poetry Quarterly, Tishman Review, The New Guard, Prick of the Spindle, and other journals.

Jim Gustafson holds an M. Div. from Garrett Theological Seminary at Northwestern University in his hometown of Evanston, Illinois and an MFA from the University of Tampa. He is the author of He teaches Creative Writing at Florida Gulf Coast University.  He has taught workshops and seminars at Wrightwood, California, Sanibel Writers Conference, The Gulf Coast Writers, and the Lee County Alliance for the Arts. He is the winner of the Gulf Coast Writers Poetry Contest and a Pushcart nominee.

Jim and his wife Connie live in Fort Myers, Florida where he reads, writes, and pulls weeds.

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Kind Words

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Donald Morrill, Awaiting Your Impossibilities

Gustafson's muse nobly refuses the tendered lies so often assoicated with time and aging. These songs of experience remind us that "each moment/is a different stream/never the current." Quietly outraged gifts, these are. Gifts, indeed.

Steve Kistulentz, Panorama

The work here covers the great swath of a fully lived life, pairing wisdom and nostalgia with a reminder that our desires never diminish as we age. The end result is a book teeming with insight and generosity.


Sandra Beasley, Count the Waves

Jim Gustafson traces the decades' grasp on our hearts and bodies, in landscapes ranging from Florida's oaks, to New York's sidewalks, to Lisbon's hills. In the tradition of poets I admire, Gustafson is distinguished by his discerning eye and his journeying spirit.