Partisan Press is a not for profit publisher.
Our mission is the preservation, expansion, and promotion of the literature of our working class, primarily poetry, which would not find a place in profit-driven publishing channels. We hope to create an awareness of and involvement in working class culture as well as to promote a progressive vision that will move our class and our society forward toward a more just and peaceful future.

Help Support Our Efforts

Poetry Collections

Sample Blue Collar Review
Any single issue of the Blue Collar Review, Journal of Progressive Working Class Literature. Each issue is a powerful collection of the best writers of our working class. An inspiration far exceeding the cost.

Who Are We Then -- Ed Werstein
A dynamic, passionate, and reflective collection. Working class poetry at its finest.
This flat-spined collection, priced at $14.00 includes postage.

BALK! -- Al Markowitz
Balk is a book that should be not only widely shared but used as a blueprint for the possibilities it offers poetry political and otherwise. -- Robert Edwards.
This flat-spined collection, priced at $15.00 includes postage.

A Possible Explanation -- Peggy Sapphire
"In Peggy Sapphire's poems the personal becomes political, a circle turning from home beyond to the world and back "I'm part of history now/that's my job." These poems never let us forget injustice; they insist on our caring, on what was once called the good fight. Yet the intellect is not without the power of the senses just as world events are not without the importance of where we came from read "The Art of Making an Omelette" to catch the ever-present activist, watcher, listener, taster, lover at her delicious best: "take big bites," You will be nourished, fed seasoned love and cultural history at a generous table." -- Myra Shapiro.
This is a flat-spined editions with the price of $12.00 plus $2.00 for postage ($14.00).

The World is In Their Care -- Gregg Shotwell
A tribute to workers in times when workers are under attack more fiercely than at any time in our history.
This one poem ode by the noted labor activist is only $3.00. For larger order pricing contact us at red-ink@earthlink.net.

The Death of Communism -- Robert Edwards
Poetry which refuses to stand on ceremony with the class enemy. Plummeting the depths of political insult and official hypocrisy while soaring with the cursing and brawling images that strike guerrilla style from the dangerous shadows of a wounded historical memory and a nourishing art. A collection reflecting humor, commitment, and hope in dark times.

Fragments From a Graffitied Wall -- Robert Edwards
A hard hitting collection of highly charged political poetry reflecting anger and humor as only Edwards can. Edwards touches on the many facets of our American culture and turns them on their heads to expose the real underbelly of US society. This collection expresses both disgust and hope in a broad range of style reminiscent at times of Whitman, Neruda, McGrath and Brecht.

Chapter 11 -- E.F. Schraeder
Schraeder's vivid, barbed poems tell stories of debt- saddled college students, financially insecure adjunct professors, and a healthcare system that too often is, as the title suggests, morally bankrupt. These are protest poems from the part of America that's struggling and often failing to get ahead. -- Lee Chilcote.

All Eyes Are Upon Us -- Gene Grabiner
From schoolyard bullying to state-sponsored terrorism, these burnished, gritty poems bear intense witness to the injustice and hypocrisy infecting our lives and psyches as Americans and world citizens. They hold us all to account for our cruelties, our blindness and blocked ears, our savage tribalism, our evasions and denials. Gene Grabiner speaks to us from the lions' den. We need to listen. -- Ann Goldsmith, author of The Spaces Between Us.

Jesus' War -- John R. Guthrie
With both scathing irony toward the perpetuators of war, bigotry, and hypocrisy, and tenderness toward their victims, John Guthrie leaves no doubt about where he stands. These poems are an Orange Alert against complacency.

American Sounds -- Robert Edwards
The most powerful assemblage yet of Robert Edward's poems. Packed with the passion, humor, class affection and militancy that mark his work, this masterful collection is artfully presented in a flat-spined letterpress edition and priced at $7.50.

Black House White House Your House My House -- Mary Franke
Poems of Housing, homelessness, race, and survival, this is a powerful collection of poetry reflecting the experience and commitment of a long time activist with roots firmly in the working class. Mary Franke is a prolific poet whose work reflects a class conscious feminist perspective as well as an acute awarness of racism and its effects from her experience as woman growing up and living in the South.

Buns of Steel -- Mary Franke
Poems of motherhood, survival, resistance to capitalism and the oppression of sexist objectification. Mary does it all -- bodies, politics, daughters, drag queens. These poems march right up, one hand on hip, and tell their truth without blinking.

River of Silence -- Al Markowitz
A collection of personal and political poetry reflecting humor as well as anger at the perversity of our corporate dictatorship and a partisan commitment to social transformation.

In This House-- Al Markowitz

Legacy -- Al Markowitz
Lyrical collections of poetry reflecting a love of jazz
and a progressive working class political perspective.

Endangered Species -- Jeffery F. Grice
Poetry reflecting the urban African-American experience.

Dream Builders -- Armando T. Zúñiga
A rich collection of poetry expressing the Xicano experience with a strong working class emphasis.

Dictation -- Anne Babson
A dynamic and powerful collection of feminist working class poetry. As an office worker, Babson takes aim at mysogynist, greedy bosses and male dominated capitalist culture. Strong in craft and sharply honed this collection strikes a blow to the heart of capitalist paternalism.

Last Name First First Name last -- Jeff Vande Zande
An excellent collection by a master of the craft, these poems speak of the realities of working class life at the beginning of the 21st century. Vande Zande's poetry explores the alienation of our automobile centered serial employment class experience.

The Algebra of Doing It -- Christopher Butters
A tender and insightful indictment of wealth's destructive rule. This collection is sinewy with resistance.

For Those Who Will Burn -- Dana Stamps, II
A powerful and inspiring collection of poems for flag burners and street wise activists.

Cosmic Rainbow -- Mary McAnally
This flat-spined collection by veteran poet and activist Mary McAnally is an inspiring "must have" for those of us struggling daily against the odds for a just society, and a life changing read for those new to the idea that a better world is possible. Price is $15.00.

Dedication -- Benjamin Balthaser
"Balthaser paints what I have called elsewhere "the emotional landscape of the dissenter," showing us, as only poetry can, how it felt to rally around the cause of the Spanish Civil War, to be interrogated by the House Un-American Activities Committee, to bury beloved, yet incriminating books on a winter's day. That this complex and misunderstood history also works as poetry—in chiseled diction and lightning flashes of imagery—is a great credit to the poet. Benjamin Balthaser believes in the powerful example of his Jewish, Communist forbears, and rescues their story from oblivion. More poets should have his kind of vision. -- Martín Espada.
This is a flat-spined editions with the price of $15.00.

Prices listed are for US Domestic mail. For international mail, please make an inquiry to red-ink@earthlink.net

All Partisan Press chapbooks are available for only $10.00
on line (shopping cart) or
Checks to
Partisan Press
P.O. 11417 Norfolk, VA 23517

Subscribe To
Blue Collar Review
Journal of Progressive Working Class Literature