Spartan Press

02/16/2025

"Catherine Strayhall's debut is one of generations of joys and losses, of memories firmly rooted by place. Strayhall has a dexterous range of forms that she uses to explore the legacy of World Wars, the changing landscape and climate, and to count all the ways we are alive. She is unafraid to face the world's cruelties but always returns to art as a balm in the face of tragedies. With the same kind of courage the title Dress Me Like a Prizefighter implies, the poems "crush lightning and love on my lips" and beautifully balance the darkness with the tenderest connections, the poems about the light we have, reminding us to have courage as the sun goes down."

-Traci Brimhall, Poet Laureate of Kansas, 2023-2027

Dress Me Like a Prizefighter

02/15/2025

"This Swirling Largesse is a poetic memoir, an historic, dual journey of a woman's life whose roots trace back to a great-great Choctaw grandmother and the Trail of Tears. Whether we're at the Oklahoma farm reuniting with a father returning from war, birthing a calf, hoeing a black snake to death for eating chicken eggs, riding the trail of transplantation from Alabama to new Indian Territory, or coping with the silence of a country in lockdown during Covid, Lewis always puts us right there with imagery and detail as precise and right on as it gets. With skillful crafting, Lewis turns what could have been an historic account into a poetic triumph. Read This Swirling Largesse and enjoy this tour de force."

-Maryfrances Wagner - 6th Missouri Poet Laureate, Solving for X

This Swirling Largesse

02/12/2025

From Spartan Press: "Strange Tales from Cherokee Street," an anthology of St. Louis poets featuring:
Daniel W. Wright, Jim McGowin, Denmark Laine, Jessie Eikmann,
S. Elizabeth Cook and Mack Thorn.

Daniel W. Wright is an award-nominated poet and fiction writer. He most recently wrote the foreword for Sacred Decay: The Art of Lauren Marx (Dark Horse, 2021). He is the author of eight collections of poetry, including Love Letters from the Underground (Spartan...

02/11/2025

Featuring Rick Christiansen, Victoria Garton, Michael Donovan, J Khan, Poet T.L. Sanders, Tina Hacker, José Faus, Jane Ellen Ibur, Linda Rodriguez and Patricia Cleary Miller.

During my time as Missouri's 6th Poet Laureate, I have had two major goals. The first has been to put poetry into the hands and ears of Missourians who don't usually read poetry or go to poetry readings. My second has been to promote or highlight Missouri poets and publishers. Thanks to...

02/10/2025

The latest from Spartan Press: "Paradise Notes" by Patricia Traxler.

Patricia Traxler is an award-winning poet, essayist, and fiction writer. A two-time Bunting Poetry Fellow at Radcliffe, she also served as Hugo Poet at the University of Montana, Thurber Poet at Ohio State, and as visiting writer at many other universities around the U.S. Her novel...

02/10/2025

Patricia Traxler is an award-winning poet, essayist, and fiction writer. A two-time Bunting Poetry Fellow at Radcliffe, she also served as Hugo Poet at the University of Montana, Thurber Poet at Ohio State, and as visiting writer at many other universities around the U.S. Her novel...

02/07/2025

"Ken Gierke's new poetry collection, Heron Spirit, is a conversation with the natural world. The poems take us from playing in leaves to lines that paddle in unison with the waves of metaphors, the lines that stretch into the endless horizon of an endless river. Nature holds bold, tall titans, sentinel eagles, and a graceful heron that transforms into the Maid of the Mist. Gierke's poems observe and reflect "in true silence". Maneuvering in the waters teaches us how to solve problems and gain new perspectives. The poems fill the silence not just between each paddle but between bird calls. That is, the poems breathe with the flow of the river and bird songs. Through stunning imagery and use of meter, Gierke shows us that the forces of nature are the true constant for our future generations and "beckon us all" to enter the sacred realm of the heron spirit."

-Barbara Harris Leonhard, Author, Three-Penny Memories: A Poetic Memoir (EIF-Experiments in Fiction, 2022)

"In his collection Heron Spirit, Ken Gierke invites us to walk with him and immerse ourselves in nature. His gentle poems, with their keen observation of details and strong sense of place, let us share quiet moments on forest paths and on the river. Attuned to the wonders of creation...

02/03/2025

The latest from Spartan / OAC Press: "Out Here We Say "Mizzoura!" Co-edited with, and a foreward by, Maryfrances Wagner (Missouri Poet Laureate, 2021-2023), featuring Sara Burge, Justin Hamm, Marianne Kunkel, Jordan Stempleman, John Dorsey, Erin Adair-Hodges, Mary Silwance, Marcus Cafagña, Daniel Biegelson and Andrés Rodríguez.

During my time as Missouri's 6th Poet Laureate, I have had two major goals. The first has been to put poetry into the hands and ears of Missourians who don't usually read poetry or go to poetry readings. My second has been to promote or highlight Missouri poets and publishers. Thanks to all of...

02/03/2025

Now available from Spartan Press, "The You We Know and Love" by Tim Tarkelly!

Discover The You We Know and Love by Timothy Tarkelly and millions of other books available at Barnes & Noble. Shop paperbacks, eBooks, and more!

01/31/2025

"Step into the captivating world of 'Son of God' by Rob Yates, where contemporary Midwestern life intertwines with echoes of the past, creating a poignant narrative that resonates deeply with readers. With lyrical prose and insightful storytelling, Yates masterfully explores the complexities of human existence, weaving together themes of love, loss, and the promise of redemption. Through his evocative writing, Yates invites us to reflect on our own journeys, as we navigate life's unpredictable twists and turns. In one poem, Yates beautifully captures the complicated essence of our shared lives, declaring, 'Our wounds did a waltz, ' a hauntingly poetic reminder of the interconnectedness of our pain and healing. 'Son of God' is a soul-stirring journey."

-Darren DeFrain, Ph.D., Author of The Salt Palace and Inside & Out

Rob's work is a looking glass that opens to his lived experience. His poems tug at the heart of the reader, and ask poignant questions that only a poet who has lived many lives can ask. What I am most inspired by is Rob's willingness to lean into the discomfort of his lived trauma, to pull...

01/29/2025

"Steve Gerson's latest collection And the Land Dreams Darkly is his best to date. In this offering from Spartan Press, Gerson plays with genre from Japanese form poetry to micro plays, narrative poetry to short-short fiction. Most memorable are the sensory snapshots in time like the scene in 'The Moment' where kids are drinking cider and hoping Jim might play the fiddle. Or the creak in the floor from 'The Life of Grandpa's House.' Readers are won over by the characters who are 'planting in dry land' and 'charting a life' across the middle section of the country. This collection is for anyone who would like to sit with someone else's experience for a while."

-Dr. Beth Gulley, English professor, author of Dragon Eggs and Frog Joy.

"Steve Gerson delivers brilliantly etched vignettes of America's psyche, soul, and temperament in his fourth collection of lyrical poetry and poetic prose. Once more, in unsurpassed fashion, he captures the essence of the nation's too little remembered, easily forgotten, readily ignored,...

01/28/2025

The latest from Spartan Press: "Behind the Wall Cloud of Sleep" by Steve Brisendine!

Discover Behind the Wall Cloud of Sleep by Steve Brisendine and millions of other books available at Barnes & Noble. Shop paperbacks, eBooks, and more!

01/27/2025

The latest from Spartan Press: "Stand in Old Light" by Matthew Porubsky!

"Matthew Porubsky's Stand in Old Light will "hover / heart-like" with me for a long time. My immediate reverence for these poems almost startled me, as the experience of reading them reminded me of the first time I fell in love with poetry, with Whitman years ago. This book is also a...

01/13/2025

2024 was a busy year (watch this page as we share more achievements).

THANK YOU to writers and musicians, to visual artists, and new media artisans who continue to capture OUR place and OUR times!. THANK YOU to each of you who donated to ClubMed in 2024. Your support of Middle American arts and artists is invaluable.

One of our most significant 2024 projects was the retool of the Spartan Press website. Since its founding in 1998, Spartan Press has published over 400 books of poetry, memoir, fiction, visual art and essay by literally hundreds of middle-American writers and visual artists.

Visit the new site. Check out the authors and books. Hell, follow a link and purchase a book (or 3). We would LUV it if you re-share the link to your socials and help spread the word.

CONGRATULATIONS Spartan Press — long live the written word!!

FINALLY -- we invite you to join in the work ahead by making a donation to Club Medici at: https://club-medici.org/donate/

Thank You,

W.E. Leathem
Chander Jayaraman
John Caswell

https://spartanpresskc.com

Spartan Press authors John Dorsey, Justin Hamm, & Jason Ryberg give a free reading at Weber State University, Ogden, UT. 6pm in the Hetzel-Hoellein Room.

01/13/2025

2024 was a busy year (watch this page as we share more achievements).

THANK YOU to writers and musicians, to visual artists, and new media artisans who continue to capture OUR place and OUR times!. THANK YOU to each of you who donated to ClubMed in 2024. Your support of Middle American arts and artists is invaluable.

One of our most significant 2024 projects was the retool of the Spartan Press website. Since its founding in 1998, Spartan Press has published over 400 books of poetry, memoir, fiction, visual art and essay by literally hundreds of middle-American writers and visual artists.

Visit the new site. Check out the authors and books. Hell, follow a link and purchase a book (or 3). We would LUV it if you re-share the link to your socials and help spread the word.

CONGRATULATIONS Spartan Press — long live the written word!!

https://spartanpresskc.com

FINALLY -- we invite you to join in the work ahead by making a donation to Club Medici at: https://club-medici.org/donate/

Thank You,

W. E. Leathem
Chander Jayaraman
John Caswell

https://www.facebook.com/share/159qFmnMuZ/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Spartan Press authors John Dorsey, Justin Hamm, & Jason Ryberg give a free reading at Weber State University, Ogden, UT. 6pm in the Hetzel-Hoellein Room.

01/12/2025

"It takes little imagination to understand the moral bankruptcy of Putin and the Russians’ invasion of Ukraine. But it requires empathy and insight, discipline and the poet’s eye and imagination to present such a tragic subject and raise it to the level of language art. In Orwell at the Kremlin Walter Bargen pays attention to the facts and at the same time to the essentials of language to support the world and its people. Bargen makes and presents a fierce and exceptional witnessing in poetry that is true and resonant; he brings home the specifics of suffering and the light of the human will that chooses to survive with a deep humanity from which we can all learn. This is what poetry at its best can do in the face of totalitarian inhumanity. This book is an amazing achievement and an important response."

—Christopher Buckley, author of "One Sky to the Next"

"The depth of tragedy is keenly felt in Bargen's poem marking the day of the Russian invasion: "February 24th, 2022. The Cost of a Flower." In this early piece, we meet an old woman questioning a Russian soldier, "Why are you here? Why are you here?" The soldier's only response is...

01/11/2025

Gasconade Review #9, "No One Sees the Irony," featuring:

Walter Bargen, DeAni Blake-Britton, Maria Vasquez Boyd, Tony Brewer, Steve Bridgens, Steve Brisendine, Marcus Cafagña, Beverly Cartwright, Lesley Day, Chase Dimock, L. Dopa, Alison Erazmus, José Faus, Linzi Garcia, Ken Gierke, Alex Gildzen, Pilar Graham, Beth Gulley, Justin Hamm, Caitlin Johnson, Melissa Fite Johnson, Mike Jurkovic, J. Khan, Julianne King, Nancy Krieg, Lynne Jensen Lampe, Kyle Laws, Gary Lechliter, Dawne Leiker, Linda M. Lewis,
R. Nikolas Macioci, Huascar Medina, Al Ortolani, Michael Poage, Matthew Porubsky, Kevin Rabas, Gabriel Ricard, Kevin Ridgeway, Andrés Rodríguez, Alexej Savreux, Tyler Robert Sheldon, William Sheldon, Scott Silsbe, Mary Silwance, Sharon SingingMoon, Richard Stimac, Timothy Tarkelly, William Trowbridge, JD Vail, Maryfrances Wagner, Jeff Weddle, Clarence Wolfshohl, Nettie Zan

The Gasconade Review is a literary and arts publication based out of the Osage Arts Community (http: //osageac.org/), located on the Gasconade River, just outside of Belle, Missouri. It appears twice annually, focusing primarily, but not exclusively, on...