Matthew J Spireng

Bio

Matthew J. Spireng’s book, Out of Body, won the 2004 Bluestem Poetry Award and was published in 2006 by Bluestem Press at Emporia State University. His chapbooks are: Young Farmer; Encounters; Inspiration Point, winner of the 2000 Bright Hill Press Poetry Chapbook Competition; and Just This. His book, What Focus Is, is forthcoming in 2011 from Word Press. Clear Cut, a signed and numbered limited edition chapbook of his poems and photographs by Austin Stracke on which the poems are based, is forthcoming from Hampden-Sydney College. Since 1990, his poems have appeared in publications across the United States including North American Review, The American Scholar, Southern Poetry Review, Poet Lore, English Journal and Connecticut Review. He holds an M.A. in creative writing from Hollins College.