About Jacobson and his poetry, the unmatched political poet Thomas McGrath wrote: "Dale Jacobson was the most brilliant student I have ever had in a poetry workshop." In the eighties he characterized Jacobson as "the best of the young American poets." Since then Jacobson has written a half dozen long poems, one of which, A Walk by the River, has been praised by Robert Bly and W.S. Merwin, and called a masterwork by poets Floyce Alexander, Robert Hedin, and Larry Woiwode, who as Poet Laureate of North Dakota also designated Jacobson an Honorary Poet Laureate. He has published ten books of poetry and is acknowledged by McGrath's publisher as one of the foremost scholars on McGrath's work. Dale Jacobson lives in the Red River Valley north of Alvarado, Minnesota.