On a cool June evening at the Haymarket House in Buena Park, I attended a local writers showcase event hosted by the Chicago Review of Books. A handful of Chicago-based authors read from their soon to be published manuscripts to a quiet and respectful crowd of Chicago-based readers, artists, and friends. I did not know at the time that I would be reviewing C. Russell Price’s newest poem collection, Bisquick: An American Seance. From a quiet post by the back door, Price strolled to the center of the room wearing a black leather jacket and holding an open tall-boy of Pabst Blue Ribbon. With effortless gravitas and an aura that instantly earned my devotion, they read us a handful of poems about a dreamy ghost cowboy, a blue ghost horse named Bisquick, and a grieving speaker grappling with the feat that it is to continue on. I was enraptured immediately, giggling, blue tears in my eyes.
Price’s collection of forty poems veraciously and humorously explores loss, loneliness, love, sex, yearning, friendship, aesthetics, what it means to be a cowboy, what it means to be an American, and all the situations and scenarios your grief can still find you in. Since receiving a copy, I have read Bisquick: An American Seance at least four times and each time I discover a new line, a new turn of phrase, to add to my library of favorites. The cover art is gorgeous, and the storyline which unfolds throughout varying poetic styles owns a call and response narrative that has a sensibly haunting effect. It is nothing short of exciting to hold a collection about ghosts in my hands that is so candidly alive while also existing so precisely in the now—America, the Midwest, Chicago in 2026 (whatever the hell that means).
I’ve gotta be careful with men like you,
Saddle greasers with ambiguous intentions,
Good hair, a fat ass, solid library
A few of my personal favorites include “Ghost Cowboy Asks for My Love Language”, “Ghost Cowboy: Origin Poem”, “Things I Shouldn’t Say, but Say Anyway Post-Coital to Ghost Cowboy” —but it is terribly difficult to choose. Between laugh out loud devastation and the dissociated semantics of casual sex, there is a brilliant tongue-in-cheek tone throughout the collection that drags you back to every unrelenting crush and every forgettable hook-up you have ever had. Through Ghost Cowboy, we are in love, we are sad, we are horny, and we hate and want better for ourselves and our country all at the same time. Price is able to show the consistency and continuity of these feelings within a single line, a single stanza.
A sound, structural poem, perfectly sprinkled with artistic observations and unboundless creativity is one thing, but having the authorial presence that Price does is another. They write with a voice that cannot be taught, completely captivating my attention and all seven of my chakras. The writing is not just good, but makes me feel they would mollycoddle my worst secrets. Their prose are not just magnetic, but so unique they evoke the desire of really wanting that one coworker, that stranger at a party, to think you are cool too. These lines remind me of that slick but quiet kid from grade school who was wise beyond their years, calmly dealing with grown-up problems, and naturally good at swearing. Conscious but restrained, it perfectly summons the familiar feeling of wanting more when you know damn well there is nothing left.
I’m complicit to murder every day
as an American even if all I did today
was smoke weed, eat hot chips, and talk to God about the dead
Grief is talking to someone who is no one in your empty passenger’s seat. Grief is the best and worst day of your life. Greif is a ghost and that ghost is your boyfriend. Grief is everywhere and everything is grief and an expiration date on this period of time is both up for debate and open for interpretation. Price understands this miraculously well, and Bisquick: An American Seance is a silly, naughty, and comforting place to hangout as a result. There are lines I want to pin to the top of the Tumblr blog I have been locked out of for a decade. I want to gift it to everyone I know that needs it, and I want to gatekeep it for when I need it the most (just kidding). I am thrilled for this collection to reach Chicago and the world. Me and my ghosts have already been applauding, earnestly, for months.
Poetry
Bisquick: An American Seance
By C. Russell Price
Triquarterly Books
Published August 15, 2026
