Poet & Writer
A resident of Lomontville in rural upstate New York, where he still cuts and splits wood to help heat his home, Matt holds an M.A. from Hollins University in Virginia and is a retired award-winning journalist.
Photo: ©Carl Cox Studios, Rosendale
Latest Book
Good Work
Winner of 2019 Sinclair Poetry Prize
published by Evening Street Press
“One source of the richness in this book is that you have to wait for each poem to tell you, in a given case, which side of the question might be better. It depends on the feeling, which Spireng gets profoundly right time after time.” —Henry Taylor
Select Reviews
“Out of Body … demonstrates Spireng’s commitment to formal simplicity as well as his close connectedness to the natural world around him.”
—Judith P. Saunders in The Hudson Valley Review
“(What Focus Is) begins with one of the most affecting poems I think I have ever read. … Read Matthew Spireng’s poems, and find yourself sated.”
—Denise Rogers in Louisiana Literature