Novelist & Poet
Poets speak not just to their own struggle but to all of us. As long as there is poetry, then we shall in some way—all of us—be heard. Poetry is its own democracy, a country that has no divisions, no boundaries, that reaches across time and across culture and language, to each of us and demands that each of our voices be heard.
“A volume of poetry that looks at what it means to watch a parent fade. In this unflinching, highly compelling collection, Spang mines his own life for reflections on his childhood and mother … A gripping poetic meditation on aging and caregiving.” ~Kirkus Reviews
The River Crossed is a love story with a twist. Jason Follett moves to a small West Virginia town looking for simple life. What he discovers instead is the dark underworld that tempts him to explore parts of himself that he’d most feared. But he also finds in his quest a new way of seeing the beauty of the river and world around him.
“Love and respect prevail in this song of endings from one brother to another, and for those of us who have the privilege of hearing its beautiful music, a gift of compassion carefully rendered.” ~Linda Aldrich
“I found this small volume of poems to be very accessible. Spang uses images/memories of growing up in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s to explore issues of sexuality, politics, and what makes a life meaningful.” ~Goodreads reviewer
“These poems remind us of the transcendence of love: love that overcomes hatred, doubt and indifference…The greatest gift of these poems is their defiance. They call to us with an urgency: love, hear, take action, as Timothy Liu pleads, ‘Don’t go back to sleep.’”
~Marita O’Neill
I Have Walked Through Many Lives gives voice to sophomore high school students who learned that poetry can be a vehicle not only to express themselves but to compose their varied visions of the world. Many of these poems went on to win state and regional contests. They are evidence that, even in a regular English class, students can learn the “moves” to write excellent poems. They are a testimony to what any teacher can do to enliven the imagination of students.
Bruce Spang, former Poet Laureate of Portland, is the author of three novels, The River Crossed (2024), The Deception of the Thrush, and memoir No Way Back: A Young Man’s Search for Home (2026). He has also published six books of poems, including Twist (2025), All You’ll Derive: A Caregiver’s Journey, To the Promised Land Grocery, and Boy at the Screen Door (Moon Pie Press), along with several anthologies and chapbooks. His new book of letters with his friend Peter Orne, Dear Teen, Dear Poet: A Coming of Age in Letters, is scheduled for release in 2026. He is the poetry and fiction editor of the Smoky Blue Literary and Arts Magazine and staff Writer for the Asheville Poetry Review. His poems have been published in Connecticut River Review, Puckerbrush Review, Red Rover Magazine, Great Smokies Review, Kalopsia Literary Journal, Café Review, Sand Hills Literary Magazine, and other journals across the United States. He teaches courses in fiction and poetry at the Great Smokies Writing Program at the University of North Carolina in Asheville and lives in Candler, NC, with his husband Myles Rightmire and their three dogs, five fish, and twenty birds.
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