Spartan Press

10/02/2026

Now available from Spartan Press: "The State of Affairs: An Anthology of Missouri Poets," featuring Walter Bargen, Robert Boyd, Victor Clevenger, Matthew Freeman, Ken Gierke, Anna Lum, Chris Nico, Sharon SingingMoon, Clarence Wolfshohl and
Scot Young.

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09/29/2026

"I've been thinking lately of poetry as the world's oldest recording device. And in this context, Richard Stimac's astonishing new collection, Blood, Water and Stone, shines forth brilliantly. You might call this book the Myth of the Midwest, for any mention of Cairo has to include our Cairo. And being St Louisans, we have little tolerance for BS-and Stimac doesn't give us any. At the outset, we're warned of the instability of river country. And a little later we hear, "I don't live in a world of metaphors." This is coming from the heart. Working through the damage that men have done, we arrive at the loving tribute of "Eucharist" and the inordinate quotidian of "Limbo." We might go all the way back to Olympia but the condition is the same: war and loss. Stimac is not quick to give easy answers, but in a poem like "Wh***ey River" we can take comfort in the strength of memory. These are poems that bend toward the religious, written by someone who won't budge from his vision."

-Matthew Freeman, author of Dopamine and The Devil (Coffeetown Press 2025)

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09/27/2026

"I started reading Michael Poage's I Know Just What You Mean at four in the morning. As it turned out it was a perfect time for espionage. Poem after poem, I began to feel like an agent from some metaphorical intelligence agency. Poage's images took me around the world, Bosnia, Turkey, Gaza. I spied into the hearts of the world's most innocent victims: mother's feeding children, changing diapers, old men marveling at how they've aged in crises, doctor's in hot zones laboring for the welfare of their patients. I found desert and ocean, books disappearing like dreams. Poage writes for those who cannot write for themselves. His poems tell the history of both trauma and hope. We can return to his words in the middle of the night."

-Al Ortolani, author of "Controlled Burn" and "Bull in the Ring"

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09/25/2026

The latest from Spartan Press: "When a Man Loves a Woman"
by Dave Malone.

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09/22/2026

Now available from Spartan Press: "Magi" by Benjamin Kuzemka.

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09/20/2026

"I'd heard of the legendary mysterious Soulard Culture Squad but didn't really know what it was all about until Robert Boyd showed up at our Re: Born reading and graced us with a performance at the open mic. What style and mastery! He's been a regular now for some time and I'm so glad to see he's got a new book out, A Fisher of Verses (Spartan Press). Let's say he catches some big ones in this collection. If I had one word to describe the poems it would be: Unafraid. If I had several: Metaphorical, sensual, elegiac, amorous, wise. Here we see what happens to the still-radical: "agents/and victims of a providence/beyond our power to know." And yet he does engage. He continues to question. Maybe what he's seen lends him the power to answer. Either way, you'll want to pick up this book and take part in the journey."

-Matthew Freeman, author of Dopamine and the Devil (Coffeetown Press), and co-curator of the Re: Born reading series in St Louis.

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09/19/2026

and yes, a little poeticizing from the maestro: Jason Ryberg …

link in comments…

09/17/2026

The latest from Spartan Press: "Wanderers,"
poems by Linzi Garcia and paintings by Deon Morrow.

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09/15/2026

"When watching a loved one die slowly - over a span of months or years - the five stages of grief don't wait around for that final breath. Even so, we're never ready, even when we are. It was too late, Ken Gierke writes. For all of us, it was too early. The long passing of a parent, someone who's passed on half of our DNA, carries with it a sixth stage: Waiting for our bodies to betray us as well. Gierke's The Long Haul captures that somber matter-of-factness through three narrative threads: The death of Gierke's father, his own yearlong health crisis when his gallbladder went bad, and a congenital hole in a wall of his heart. He recounts each in small telling details: a panhandler near his father's hospital, stubbed toes turning blue, the sound of Miles Davis' horn as the last of the anesthesia wears off. The poems here acknowledge grief, apprehension, pain physical and psychic. They do not, however, wallow in them. The Long Haul lives in those fifth and sixth stages - and are far more affecting and effective for that. When Gierke writes Nothing to do but let it play / until the clock runs down, we set our mouths and nod along with him. We have been there, we are there, and we and our loved ones will be there sooner or later."

-Steve Brisendine, author, Pitch Invader on a Foosball Table and Behind the Wall Cloud of Sleep