Kalamazoo Brewery Donates to Local Arts Organizations, Including New Issues Press

Bell's Brewery has awarded $100,000 in grants to 18 local arts, humanities and children's organization, including a $5,000 grant to New Issues Poetry & Prose. Read the Kalamazoo Gazette article.

This grant couldn't have come at a better time. On July 13, the Gov. Granholm dissolved the Department of History, Arts, and Libraries, which is home to the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs (MCACA). MCACA has provided New Issues with numerous grants for their Inland Seas Poetry Series. The future of arts funding in Michigan is even more uncertain. MCACA will not be eliminated, but it will be moved to the Michigan Strategic Fund of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. ("Gov. Jennifer Granholm's executive order closes Michigan's Department of History, Arts and Libraries" Grand Rapids Press)

And I might add, Bell's has fabulous beer. And the Brewery's Eccentric Café will be hosting our August 30th event/poetry reading.

Bill Olsen and Nancy Eimers Read at the KBAC

“Poets in Print” at the KBAC - Nancy Eimers & Bill Olsen (Editor of New Issues) - Saturday, July 18, 7 - 9 p.m.

Poets Nancy Eimers and Bill Olsen present readings from their work on Saturday, July 18. Two KBAC broadsides featuring a work by each poet are being created by KBAC member artists Jeff Abshear and Katie Platte. The broadsides and works by the poets will be available during the event for sale and signing. Broadsides from other "Poets in Print" events and other book arts creations are also available for sale.

The Kalamazoo Book Arts Center sponsors “Poets in Print,” a series of readings by outstanding poets in the Midwest. Broadsides and chapbooks created by KBAC member artists featuring the poet's work are published to commemorate the events. These and other works are for sale at each event. Exhibits of different artist's work are on display in the KBAC gallery for viewing before and after each event. Readings are free and open to the public.

Nancy Eimers is the author of three collections of poetry, including A Grammar to Waking (Carnegie Mellon University Press). She has been the recipient of a Nation “Discovery” award, two National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing fellowships, and a Whiting Writers Award. She teaches at Western Michigan University.

William Olsen is the author of four books of poetry, including Avenue Of Vanishing (Triquarterly: Northwestern University Press). He has received fellowships from The Guggenheim Endowment, The National Endowment of the Arts, and Breadloaf. He teaches at Western Michigan University.

*Next "Poets in Print" reading is scheduled for September 12 with poets Wayne Miller, John Gallaher and Michael Robins.

This event is free and refreshments are served. Doors open at 6:30. KBAC studios in Suite 103A of the Park Trades Center at 326 W. Kalamazoo Ave in downtown Kalamazoo.

info@kalbookarts.org
www.kalbookarts.org

Save the Date: August 30

Mark your calendars! New Issues will be ending the summer with party on Sunday, August 30. Bell's Brewery Eccentric Cafe. Poetry readings, book deals, an auction of fine goodies, live music, great company, and beer. More information to come as plans are finalized. Stay tuned!

Claudia Keelan Essay on Poetry Daily

Claudia Keelan's essay "Ecstatic Émigré," from American Poetry Review, May / June 2009, is up on the Poetry Daily website. Claudia Keelan's latest book, Missing Her, is forthcoming in the Green Rose Series from New Issues Press in the fall of 2009. She lives in Las Vegas.

Paula McLain's New Novel to be Published by Ballantine

Congratulations to Paula McLain, author of Stumble, Gorgeous (New Issues, 2005) and Less of Her (New Issues 1999) on the placement of her novel!

Ballantine Books has won a heated auction for US rights in The Great Good Place by Paula McLain, a novel written from the perspective of Ernest Hemingway's first wife, Hadley, about the couple's life together in Europe in the early 1920's. Canadian rights have been pre-empted by Doubleday Canada, and other foreign auctions are in progress. Random House Group executive editor Susanna Porter acquired rights from agent Julie Barer. Contact: jbarer (at) barerliterary (dot) com

For the whole scoop, read the New York Observer article: "Novel About Hemingway Sold to 'Loving Frank' Editor For North of Half a Million"

Rain Taxi Reviews Jericho Brown's Please

Pick up the Summer 2009 issue of Rain Taxi Review of Books to read Virginia Konchan's review of Jericho Brown's debut poetry collection Please. "Erotic and grief-stricken, ministerial and playful, Brown offers his reader a journey unlike any other in contemporary poetry: a book in which moral and cultural relativism does not form the pillars of its foundation."

Ron Slate Reviews Cassarino's Zero at the Bone

Visit Ron Slate's website to read his review of Stacie Cassarino's Zero at the Bone: www.ronslate.com

Just a taste: "Zero At The Bone is a book of awakened sensitivities and passing glances at one's youthful reflection (sparking everywhere). Its pleasures come from sonorous reckonings with what the eye sees there."