Fatherwife (Novel)
Fatherwife is a novel about loneliness and desire, with a Black queer lens and a pop culture fixation. The story happens on two parallel tracks: a “traditional” narrative centered on Irving, a journalist and occasional TV recapper living with his husband, Paz, in central Iowa, and poem sequences in which a Greek chorus of wives narrates the history of Irving’s suppressed desires.
Jefferey Spivey is a St. Louis-based author, poet, and journalist and serves as Editor at Northstar Publishing. He was a semifinalist in the Saint Louis Poetry Center’s 2025 James H. Nash Poetry
Contest. His debut story collection, The Birthright of Sons, won the 2023 Iron Horse Book Prize and made the longlist for the 2024 Maya Angelou Book Award. Additionally, he was named
runner-up for Poets & Writers’ 2023 Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award and was also a recipient of The de Groot Foundation’s 2022 COURAGE to WRITE grant. He’s a current MFA
candidate in Bennington College’s Writing Seminars, with an expected June 2026 graduation. His work has appeared in Rigorous, Evergreen Review, and Typehouse.
Visit Jefferey’s website: www.jeffereyspivey.com
Find Jefferey on Instagram: @jefferey.spivey