Author Jay Sturner

Hi folks, you can now order my latest chapbook SHADOWS & SPARKS via PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, or Buy Me a Coffee. The price is $7.00, and that includes shipping! PayPal: See the Buy Now button below. Venmo or Zelle: Message me for the phone number. Buy Me a Coffee: Click here  and select 7 coffees. Thank you so much for your support!   SHADOWS & SPARKS is a short collection of poems that fall outside Sturner’s typical themes of fantasy and horror. The poems range from dark and bleak (the shadows) to light and hopeful (the sparks), and reveal a more personal side to the author. A previous edition of the book was published in 2024 by Maverick Duck Press , but this revised and expanded edition includes ten additional poems and a new cover.

My poem "The Quiet Hour Ends" has been published in Vol. 48, No. 2 (Spring 2026) of The Prairie Light Review and can be read by clicking here .

My sci-fi poem "A Danger of Outer Space Hide 'n' Seek" has been published in Vol. 2, Issue 1 of SpecPoVerse and can be read by clicking here .

And then the angel said, “Congrats on your passing over! The Afterlife welcomes you, it’s going to be great! But first, a word from our sponsors . . . ”

The Winter 2026 issue of Spectral Realms is now available and includes my prose poem "Honorary God." Details can be found here . This marks my return to writing after a full year away. Thank you to Hippocampus Press and Editor S.T. Joshi for selecting the poem.

Wrapping up final edits to a blurb for a fellow writer whose stellar book of poetry will be released in November.

For over ten years, my poem "A Tree" could be read along Meadow Lake near the visitor center at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois. It was written when I worked in the herbarium there. The poem was later published in my book Kairos . Here's the poem. A tree is a treasure burst forth into the sky; a fissured relic covered in emeralds that change with the voice of equinox. A tree is a benevolent caretaker for the wild; a framework of weathered arms holding nests, refuge, and insect treats. A tree is a teacher of patience and endurance; a primeval soul bearing the fruit and labor of the illusion we call Time. A tree is our third parent of unconditional love; a haven of cool shade and wonderment beneath a sentry of leaves.

Officially autumn, but the leaves have only just begun to change: a splash of red here, a wisp of yellow there. It’s as if an uncountable number of dripping paintbrushes are poised over the land, silently waiting to angle down and start their work.

 

"Variations on the I-Ching," co-written with writer Jennifer Crow, has been published in the  Winter Solstice 2024 issue of   Eternal Haunted Summer and can be read by clicking  here .