Winter Break Hours

The New Issues office will be closed during winter break and reopen Monday, January 5th, with regular hours.

Mark Irwin on Poetry Daily

"Voice, Distant, Still Assembling" from Mark Irwin's newly released book Tall If was featured November 29th on the Poetry Daily website. Follow this link to read the poem.

Jericho Brown's Please in the Small Press Spotlight

Critical Mass, the blog of the national book critics circle board of directors, posted an interview with Jericho Brown about his new book Please.
Jericho says this: "When I write and revise, I imagine myself in the middle of a conversation, often a disagreement, with someone I love."

Visit bookcriticscircle.blogspot.com for the full interview.

Theories of Falling Reviewed on Blackbird

Check out a review by Susan Settlemyre Williams in the Fall 2008 edition of Blackbird. A sample: "If there is throughout Theories of Falling the sense of a toxic stain, it is nowhere so apparent as in the long sequence 'Allergy Girl.' This suite begins, if not innocuously, at least in a frightening but familiar experience as young parents cope with their infant’s terrible allergies: 'No breast / is safe, no cowgoatsoy milk.' 'They cradle me in Benadryl.' Their mantra is 'Don’t break the baby.'" Read the whole review at www.blackbird.vcu.edu.

Corduroy Books Reviews Jericho Brown's PLEASE

Follow this link to read Weston Cutter's new review of Jericho Brown's debut collection Please: Corduroybooks.com

"Just read this book. Seriously. Everybody should be reading Jericho Brown." --Weston Cutter

RATTLE e-reviews: Hardy and Beasley

RATTLE has posted two new e-reviews of New Issues titles: Theories of Falling by Sandra Beasley and The Headless Saints by Myronn Hardy.

"Whether she is writing about allergy suffering or a philosophical analysis of American culture, Beasley insists on surprise and humor of top order. Her humor is witty, rich, and has the tone of a weary voice that has come to the conclusion that one must laugh at oneself in order to deal with the pain of life."
Theories of Falling reviewed by Jeremy Voigt.

"This is a sneaky collection in that it wrecks you incrementally, in small doses."
The Headless Saints reviewed by Casey Thayer.

Review of Jericho Brown's PLEASE

Read Missy McEwen's review of Jericho Brown's new book on the blog Immunization Against Invisibility: "The poems in Jericho Brown's Please hit you right away and make you say, "Wow," make you pause, make you close the book to take a break to recuperate from the blow. Please is a strong book of poems -- strong like a man's fist, strong like love, strong like music."

New Poetry from New Issues

New Issues announces the publication of two new poetry books: Please, a debut collection by Jericho Brown, and Tall If by Mark Irwin.

Claudia Rankine says this about Please: "To read these poems is to encounter the devastating genius of Jericho Brown." Read more reviews on the New Issues website. Read "Beneath Me" and "Your Body Made Heavy with Gin" from Please.

The American Book Review has called Mark Irwin's poetry “ . . . vibrant and alert, a poetry to contend with . . ." and Publisher's Weekly had this to say about Irwin's earlier work: "Brilliant, Irwin’s intellect and the urgency of his words remain traditionally steadfast." Read "Doors" and "Theory" from Tall If.

Both books are available online from Amazon.com and Spdbooks.org.

Jericho Brown's Upcoming Poetry Readings

In 2008:

Thursday, November 6, 6:30 p.m.
Gemini Ink's University Without Walls Reading Series
The Local Brook Hollow Library Branch, 530 Heimer, San Antonio, TX

Friday, November 14, 7:00 p.m.
Lindsay J. Cropper Living Writers Series
Institute for Peace and Justice Auditorium, University of San Diego

Wednesday, November 19, 7:00 p.m.
Uncalled-For Reading Series
Unnameable Books (basement),456 Bergen Street, Brooklyn, NY 11217

In 2009:

Wednesday, January 21, 4:30 p.m.
UCSD New Writing Series
Visual Arts Facility Performance Space, University of California, San Diego

Thursday, February 26, 7:30 p.m.
Cleveland State University Poetry Center Reading Series, with TERRANCE HAYES
Cleveland State University

Thursday, March 5, 8:00 p.m.
Observable Reading Series, with MICHAEL DUMANIS
Schlafly Bottleworks, 7260 Southwest Ave. (at Manchester), Maplewood, MO 63143

Wednesday, March 18, 7:30 p.m.
Agnes Scott College Reading Series
The Fireplace Lounge, Agnes Scott College, Decatur, Georgia

Thursday, March 19, 7:00 p.m.
University of Georgia at Athens/VOX Reading Series, with JEFFEREY RENARD ALLEN
Location: TBA

Thursday, March 26, 7:00 p.m
Brazos Boookstore Reading Series, with BRADFORD GRAY TELFORD
2421 Bissonnet Houston, TX 77005

Northern Michigan University Welcomes Sandra Beasley

Poet Sandra Beasley will be reading at the NMU's Women's Federated Clubhouse, 104 W. Ridge St. in Marquette, MI, at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, November 18, 2008.

Beasley is the author of the poetry collections Theories of Falling as well as the forthcoming Bitch and Brew: Sestinas.

Geoff Rips at the Texas Book Festival

Geoff Rips, author of the novel The Truth, will join authors Carmen Tafolla, Sara Roahen, and Tom Piazza for the panel on "Evoking a Sense of Place" at the Texas Book Festival.

"Evoking a Sense of Place"
Saturday, November 1
@ the Texas State Capitol
Austin, TX

Reading by Winners of the 2008 Witter Bynner Poetry Prize

Matthew Thorburn (Subject to Change, New Issues) and Monica Youn, winners of the 2008 Witter Bynner poetry fellowships from the Library of Congress, will give a poetry reading in the Carol Huxley Theater in the New York State Museum on Friday, October 24, 2008 at 7:00 p.m.

The event, sponsored by the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress, the New York Center for the Book, and the New York State Library, is free and open to the public. A reception will follow the reading.

Questions? Visit NY Literary Events Calendar or contact Pamela McLaughlin of New York Center for the Book at pwmclaug@syr.edu.

Carrie McGath Reads at FIRE, Oct 8

Carrie McGath, author of Small Murders (New Issues, 2006), will be reading at FIRE in Kalamazoo on Wednesday, October 8.

Marvin Bell to Judge the 2009 New Issues Poetry Prize

New Issues is now taking submissions for the 2009 New Issues Poetry Prize, an award given to a first book of poems. The prize includes a $2,000 award and publication. Marvin Bell, author of Mars Being Red, will select the winning manuscript. New Issues often publishes the runner-up and additional manuscripts from the contest.

Previous recipients of the New Issues Poetry Prize include Justin Marks, Sandra Beasley, Jason Bredle, Katie Peterson, and Malena Morling.

Visit our website for complete guidelines.

Jennifer Perrine Wins VABC's "Taste 'Test" Contest

Congratulations to Jennifer Perrine, author of The Body Is No Machine (New Issues, 2007), who was named the winner of the "Taste 'Test" contest, held by the Virginia Arts of the Book Center. In addition to being featured on Poetry Daily, her poem "If Life Gives You Lemons, Make" will be made into a limited-edition letterpress broadside by VABC artists.

Upcoming Poetry Readings

September 20, 2008 at 8 p.m.
The So and So Series: Rauan Klassnik, Justin Marks, and Lisa Olstein
The Distillery, 516 East Second St, Boston, MA

September 25, 2008 at 8 p.m.
The Third Area at Pharmaka, 101 West 5th St, Los Angeles, CA
Louise Mathias, Gail Wronsky, Holaday Mason and Marsha De La O

November 14, 2008, 7:30 p.m.
Imaginary Press Reading Series: Louise Mathias, David Dodd Lee and Hugh Behm-Steinberg
Jon Oulman Salon, 331 13th Avenue NE, Minneapolis, MN

Ron Slate Reviews Sexton's Causeway

Visit Ron Slate's website to read his review of Elaine Sexton's Causeway: www.ronslate.com

Just a taste: "Causeway is a book to savor and study for its ambition, scope, and execution – but also, for its generosity in freeing us (by gathering us in its claws) to experience desire and understanding in dynamic and sometimes conflicting action, much as in 'Borrowed House': 'the way we push and pull one another / as we buffet the past, as I see it, through glass.'"

MCACA Grant Awarded to New Issues will Support the Publication of Michigan Poetry

New Issues Poetry & Prose has been awarded a $9,000 grant from the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs to support the publication of three new titles in the Inland Seas Poetry Series. The three titles, each by poets who currently live in Michigan or who have strong Michigan connections, will be published in 2008-09.

* Talking Diamonds, a new book of poetry by former Poet Laureate of Grand Rapids, Michigan: Linda Nemec Foster.
* Beauty Breaks In, a fourth collection of poetry by Mary Ann Samyn, author of two other Inland Seas titles: Inside the Yellow Dress and Purr.
* Hilarity, a third book of poems by Detroit-native Patty Seyburn, and winner of our 2008 Green Rose Prize in Poetry.

"It seems like Michigan really takes care of its own writers," was a comment we received at a conference once, and yes, New Issues believes in supporting one of Michigan’s most precious natural resources. To date, the publication of over fifty books has been supported by MCACA as part of our Inland Seas Series.

The Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs serves to encourage, develop and facilitate an enriched environment of artistic, creative, cultural activity in Michigan.

2008 Best New Poetry

Check out the latest Best American Poetry for poems by New Issues authors John Rybicki and Lee Upton. Lee Upton's poem, "Thomas Hardy," is from her collection Undid in the Land of Undone, published this year.

Sandra Beasley's Fall Poetry Readings

Monday, September 15, 2008 - 7:30 p.m.
Cafe Muse with Susan Settlemyre Williams (open mic to follow)
Friendship Heights Village Center, 4433 South Park Avenue, Chevy Chase, MD

Sunday, October 19, 2008 - 3 p.m.
2008 Maureen Egen Exchange Award Winners :: Sandra Beasley (poetry) and Willett Thomas (fiction) Hosted by Poets & Writers magazine
Housing Works Bookstore Cafe, 126 Crosby Street, New York, NY

For a complete list of Sandra's upcoming events, visit her website: www.sandrabeasley.com.

Pineda Falls for the Book in Virginia

If you are in Virginia this fall, check out the Fall for the Book Festival. New Issues poet Jon Pineda will be reading as part of the festival.
When: Sun, Sep 21, 4 p.m. – 5 p.m.
Where: Busboys and Poets, 4251 S. Campbell Avenue, Arlington, VA
Description: The award-winning poet reads from his collection, The Translator's Diary. Co-sponsored by Busboys and Poets and the Friends of the Sherwood Regional Library.

Sandra Beasley's Writer's Digest Interview

Robert Lee Brewer posted an interview with Sandra Beasley, author of Theories of Falling, to his blog, Poetic Asides, on the Writer's Digest website.

A small sampling of the interview:

Robert: You have a very nice website and blog. What do you see as the main benefits of having these?

Sandra: Honestly? My website started because of "Sandra Beasley and the Spaz Rats," my internet doppelganger who is a renowned expert on alternative medicine for rodents.

Want more? And why wouldn't you? Follow this link for the full interview: Exclusive Interview with Sandra Beasley.

Jericho Brown Gets Broadsided

Visit the Broadsided Press website to download the new broadside of Jericho Brown's poem "Open," beautifully illustrated by artist Kevin Morrow. Jericho Brown's poem will appear in his debut poetry collection Please, coming out this Fall from New Issues.

WMU's Gwen Frostic Reading Series, Fall 2008

The Gwen Frostic Reading Series, Fall 2008 Schedule:

September 25 :: Don Lee, author of the novel Wrack and Ruin, new faculty member of Western Michigan University's graduate creative writing program.

October 9 :: Poet Steve Orlen, author of The Elephant's Child: New & Selected Poems 1978—2005.

October 21 :: Fiction writers Sarah Bynum and Salvatore Scibona.

October 28 :: Czech writer Arnost Lustig, author of the novel Lovely Green Eyes.

November 6 or 13 :: Playwright Erik Ramsey.

December 11 :: WMU Faculty/Alumni reading in poetry with Daneen Wardrop, author of The Odds of Being, and Lisa Fishman, author of The Deep Heart's Core Is a Suitcase (New Issues, 1998).

All readings begin at 8 p.m. and are held at WMU's Little Theater, Oliver St. at Oakland Dr.
Readings are free and open to the public.

The 2009 Green Rose Prize

New Issues is now taking submissions for the 2009 Green Rose Prize, an award given to a manuscript by a poet who has already published at least one previous collection of poetry (first books should be sent to the New Issues Poetry Prize). The contest is judged by the editors of the press, who often choose additional manuscripts to publish.

Previous winners of the Green Rose Prize include Patty Seyburn, Jon Pineda, Noah Eli Gordon, Joan Houlihan, Hugh Seidman, and Christine Hume.

Visit our website for complete guidelines.

Winner of the 2008 AWP Award Series in the Novel

Goldie Goldbloom of Chicago, Illinois, has won the 2008 AWP Award for the Novel for her manuscript titled Invaded. Joanna Scott, author of Everybody Loves Somebody and The Manikin, judged the contest for AWP. AWP is a national, nonprofit organization dedicated to serving American letters, writers, and programs of writing. Visit the 2008 AWP Award Series page for more information on the contest and to view the winners of the other categories.

Judge's Statement: "Invaded is a strange, mesmerizing tale about characters uncomfortably defined by superficial eccentricities. It is also a wrenching love story."

Goldie Goldbloom's stories have appeared in StoryQuarterly and Narrative Magazine. She lives in Chicago and has eight children.

Myronn Hardy Poetry Readings

Myronn Hardy, author of Approaching the Center and Headless Saints, will be reading from his work at the following locations:

August 9, 2008. 3 p.m.
Lincoln Center Out of Doors
Lincoln Center, South Plaza
New York City

September 12, 2008. 1:40 p.m.
SUNY Albany
1400 Washington Avenue
Library Science Building, G-20
Albany, NY

Pineda's Author Page at Forewordmagazine.com

Jon Pineda answers a few questions for ForeWord Magazine on their new author page feature. To read the questions and Jon's answers, visit his page. ForeWord Magazine :: Author Pages

Rybicki Readings this Summer in Michigan

John Rybicki will be reading on July 15 at Peter White Public Library at 7 p.m. Northern Michigan University's English Department is sponsoring the event. Snowbound Books of Marquette, Michigan, will provide the books. Snowbound is a wonderful independent bookstore in the upper peninsula of Michigan. Visit their website: www.snowboundbooks.com.

Bacchus and The "Bards": John Rybicki will be reading with Jack Ridl at the Fenn Valley Vineyard on Sunday, August 3. The event begins at 2:30 and goes until 4:30. Poetry readings will take place around 3. Address: Fenn Valley Vineyards, 6130 122nd Avenue, Fennville, MI. No reservations needed. Visit their website: www.fennvalley.com.

John Rybicki the author of Traveling at High Speeds(New Issues) and a chapbook, Yellow-Haired Girl with Spider. His second book of poems, We Bed Down into Water, was published by Northwestern / TriQuarterly in the fall of 2007.

New Review of Beasley's Theories of Falling

Visit Ron Slate's website to read his review of Sandra Beasley's Theories of Falling: www.ronslate.com

Just a taste: "Displaying a large, feisty ambition as well as the talent to realize it, Sandra Beasley’s first book, Theories of Falling, reminds me of something Robert Frost wrote to B.F. Skinner in 1926: "All that makes a writer is the ability to write strongly and directly from some unaccountable and almost invincible personal prejudice." Beasley is so equipped. Her persona cultivates a precocious apprehension of the nature of intimacy. She's the one who cuts through conventional perception to reveal the deeper dynamic."

Sandra Beasley to Read at Washington D.C. Bookstore

Sandra Beasley, author of Theories of Falling, will be reading with Barbara Goldberg, author of The Royal Baker's Daughter, at the Washington D.C. bookstore Politics and Prose. June 22, 2008 - 1 PM

Politics and Prose Bookstore and Coffeehouse / 5015 Connecticut Avenue NW / Washington, DC 20008. (Directions)

Sexton Interview on the NBCC's Blog

Visit Critical Mass, the blog of the National Book Critics Circle board of directors, for a brief interview with poet Elaine Sexton, author of the books Sleuth and Causeway. SMALL PRESS SPOTLIGHT: ELAINE SEXTON. Find out how Elaine answers this question from her interviewer, Rigoberto González: "How does a poet find fresh perspective when writing about a place like New York City? How does a single person claim a city that belongs to everyone?"

The Boys I Borrow Finalist for the Balcones Poetry Prize

The Boys I Borrow by Heather Sellers has been named one of four finalists for the 2007 Balcones Poetry Prize. The 2007 Balcones Poetry Prize, awarded to an outstanding book of poetry published during the year, was given to Aimee Nezhukumatathil's At the Drive-in Volcano. The three other finalists included Bob Hicok, Laura Kasischke, and Ron Padgett. Judges for the 2007 prize were Carrie Fountain, Elizabeth McKetta, and Scott Pierce.

For more information on the Balcones Poetry Prize, visit their website: www.austincc.edu/crw/balcones_prize.html.

Undid in the Land of Undone Receives a Silver BOTYA Medal

ForeWord magazine announced the winners of its tenth annual Book of the Year Awards and Undid in the Land of Undone by Lee Upton was given a silver medal in the poetry category. For a complete list of winners, visit their website www.forewordmagazine.com.

The Winner of the 2008 New Issues Poetry Prize

Justin Marks has won the 2008 New Issues Poetry Prize for his manuscript A Million in Prizes. Carl Phillips, author of Quiver of Arrows, judged the award. Justin wins a $2,000 award and publication of his manuscript in the spring of 2009.

Justin Marks’s latest chapbook is [Summer insular] (Horse Less Press, 2007). His poems have recently appeared in Cannibal, Soft Targets, Tarpaulin Sky and the Bedside Guide to No Tell Motel – Second Floor, and are forthcoming in Handsome, the New York Quarterly and Wildlife Poetry Magazine. He is the founder and Editor of Kitchen Press Chapbooks and lives in New York City.

From Judge’s Citation:
“‘I wake, my not-yet-self/projecting back on the life I rise into.’ That’s but one example of the kind of logic (and syntax) that informs the poems of A Million in Prizes, a logic that often resists initial sense, only to reward with a clarity and maturity of insight that make these poems more powerful—more persuasive—with each reading.” —Carl Phillips

Elaine Sexton Readings

Elaine Sexton, author of Sleuth and Causeway, will be reading at the upcoming locations:

May 4th, 5 p.m., Bellevue Literary Review Spring Reading, Bellevue Hospital, First Avenue and 27th Street, New York City. Reading with Leslie Jamison, Jessica Greenbaum, & Maud Casey.

May 15th, Bird & Beckett Books, San Francisco
May 27th, Bluestockings Bookstore, New York City
June 8th, RiverRun Books, Portsmouth, NH

Matthew Thorburn on "The Poet and the Poem"

Check out the Library of Congress website for an interview/reading with Matthew Thorburn, author of Subject to Change. The Poet and the Poem is now online. Scroll down the page to find the link to his webcast.

Geoff Rips Reads from The Truth at The Twig

Geoff Rips, winner of the 2006 AWP Award for the Novel, will be reading from his novel, The Truth, on April 30 in San Antonio.

Time: Wednesday, April 30, 2008 5:00 p.m. / Location: The Twig Book Shop , 5005 Broadway, San Antonio, TX 78209

Sandra Beasley Wins the 2008 Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award

Sandra Beasley, author of the newly-released Theories of Falling, has been awarded the 2008 Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award. The Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award, administered by Poets & Writers Magazine, introduces emerging writers to the New York City literary community and dishes out an all-expenses-paid, weeklong trip to the city, during which the authors meet with literary agents, editors, publishers, and writers, and give a public reading.

Each year, a new state is chosen to participate in the program and writers from that state are invited to submit their work. For this year's award, Washington D.C. was selected. Outside judges choose one poet and one fiction writer for this prize. Willett Thomas, also of Washington D.C., won the prize for fiction.

Press Release from Poets & Writers.

In Memory: Julie Moulds Rybicki

New Issues lost a dear friend and poet this past Tuesday, April 8, when Julie Moulds Rybicki passed away after a failed bone marrow transplant. Her battle with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma lasted sixteen years, and she was a fighter. A woman of extraordinary talent and impossible positivity, Julie's poetry reflected her ability to be both brutally honest and yet find the fantasy and beauty in every situation.

The poems of Woman with a Cubed Head (New Issues, 1998) were called "unflinching, funny, and wise" by Denise Duhamel. Vince Gotera of North American Review said in a review, ". . . we are aware that a life-and-death struggle is going on: chemotherapy, bone marrow transplants, 'anti-fungal mouth medications,' the indefatigable love of a husband.”

"The Woman with a Cubed Head" by Julie Moulds on the New Issues website.

Read the Kalamazoo Gazette's story on Julie.

Photo by Mary Whalen.

Theories of Falling Unveiled at The Writer's Center

Sandra Beasley's long-awaited first book of poetry will be unveiled at her reading this Sunday, April 13. Sandra will be reading with Kyle Dargan, author of Bouquet of Hungers (University of Georgia Press) at The Writer's Center, 4508 Walsh Street, Bethesda, MD 20815, at 2 p.m. Find more information on their website.

Pineda Reaches Critical Mass

Check out Critical Mass, the blog of the National Book Critics Circle board of directors for a brief interview with poet Jon Pineda, winner of our 2007 Green Rose Prize for his book The Translator's Diary. SMALL PRESS SPOTLIGHT: JON PINEDA

Also check out two poems recently posted on Poetry Daily: "First Snowfall" and "My Sister, Who Died Young, Takes Up The Task"

April is National Poetry Month

New Issues is a proud sponsor of National Poetry Month. Check out their website.
New Issues's NPM web page.
New Issues poetry on the NPM website:
"Cherry Tomatoes" by Sandra Beasley

Theories of Falling: New Release Date

Theories of Falling by Sandra Beasley has a new release date due to mistakes at the printer. In order to reprint the book without errors, we are pushing back the release date to April 15th. Everyone who has placed a preorder with New Issues will receive their copy as soon as we get the boxes from the printer. Those who have requested a review copy will also receive their book at that time.

Thank you for all the inquiries into Theories of Falling. We are also very excited about Sandra's new book and can't wait to share with you the completed product.

Celebrate Small Press Month: Attend a Reading

Hope you can attend a few of these upcoming readings by New Issus authors. March is Small Press Month and April is National Poetry Month.

Beasley Launches Theories of Falling

Wednesday, March 19, 2008 @ 7:00 p.m.
Pentagon City Borders Books
Arlington, VA

Wednesday, April 2, 2008
A reading with Meghan O’Rourke
at the Long Island University Poetry Center
C.W. Post Campus, New York

Sunday, April 13, 2008
A reading with Kyle Dargan
At the Writer’s Center
Bethesda, Maryland

Check out Sandra Beasley's website for a full list of upcoming readings.

Myronn Hardy Reads from The Headless Saints

Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Shaman Drum Bookshop
Ann Arbor, MI

Saturday, April 5, 2008 @ 3:00 p.m.
Ear Inn Reading Series, 326 Spring Street (West of Greenwich St.) NYC

Monday, April 7, 2008 @ 11:00 a.m.
Lehman College, 250 Bedford Blvd. West, Bronx, NY

Saturday, April 12, 2008 @ 7:00 p.m.
Reading, Booksigning, Music
Hotel Florence, 11111 Forrestville, Chicago, IL
Bronzeville Black Chicagoan Historical Society / Pullman State Historic Site

Elaine Sexton at Three Lives in NY
Sexton will read from her new collection, Causeway.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008 @ 7:00 p.m.
Three Lives & Company
154 West 10th St. New York, NY

Danish Poet Carsten René Nielsen Reads in NYC
Sunday, April 6, 2008 @ 4:00 p.m.
The Bowery Club in New York City
Carsten René Nielsen will read with David Keplinger. Together they translated the prose poems for Nielsen's English-language collection, The World Cut Out with Crooked Scissors

Geoff Rips Gives Us The Truth
Geoff Rips, author of the AWP Award-Winning novel The Truth will be reading from his book at two events in Texas.

Thursday, March 27, 2008 @ 7:00 p.m.
Book People: "A Community Bound by Books"
Austin, Texas

Wednesday, April 30, 2008 @ 5 p.m.
The Twig Book Shop
San Antonio, Texas

Noah Eli Gordon's Readings:

March 22 @ 4:00 p.m.
Segue Reading Series
The Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery, just north of Houston, NYC
with David Shapiro

March 23 @ 5:00 p,m,
Amherst Books, 8 Main St.,Amherst, MA 01002
with Joshua Marie Wilkinson

March 24 @ 7pm
The Lily Pad, 1353 Cambridge Street, Inman Sq., Boston, MA
with Josh Bell, Ashley Capps, Joshua Marie Wilkinson

March 25, 2008 @ 7:30 pm
Bridge Street Books, Washington D.C.
2814 Pennsylvania Ave NW (at M St NW)
with Joshua Marie Wilkinson

March 26
Chop Suey Books, Richmond, VA
1317 West Cary Street
with Joshua Marie Wilkinson

March 27, 2008 @ 7PM
@ CINE, 234 West Hancock Ave, Athens, GA
between Pulaski and Hull Streets in the old Snowtire building.
VOX reading series, with Karla Kelsey, Joshua Marie Wilkinson

March 28, 2008 @ 8:00 pm
Emory University, Atlanta, GA
POETRY COUNCIL READING SERIES
with Joshua Marie Wilkinson

March 29, 2008 @ 7:30 pm
Bankhead Reading Series
University of Alabama, 205 Smith Hall, Tuscaloosa
with Joshua Marie Wilkinson

New Issues Title Named as Finalist

Lee Upton's Undid in the Land of Undone has been named a finalist for ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year Awards in the poetry category. 2007 Award winners to be announced May 29.

The 2008 Virginia Festival of the Book

March 26-30, 2008 is the 14th Annual Virginia Festival of the Book. Visit their website to check out the schedule of events. Here are just a few events which include authors published by New Issues:

Guy Lines: A Poetry Reading. Insights into men's lives and relationships with Kyle Dargan (Bouquet of Hungers), James Hoch (Miscreants), and Jon Pineda (The Translator's Diary).
Thursday, March 27th, 6:00 PM
New Dominion Bookshop, 404 East Main Street, Charlottesville, VA

Family Lines: A Poetry Reading and Discussion. Charlotte Matthews (Green Stars), Kevin Boyle (A Home for Wayward Girls), Nickole Brown (Sister), and Dan Albergotti (The Boatloads) read from their work and discuss the influence of family in their poems.
Sunday, March 30th, 1:30 PM
New Dominion Bookshop, 404 East Main Street, Charlottesville, VA

Online Reviews on Bookslut.com

Visit the Bookslut website for two great reviews of New Issues titles: Standing in Line for the Beast by Jason Bredle, reviewed by Jason B. Jones, and Undid in the Land of Undone by Lee Upton, reviewed by Olivia Cronk.

Matthew Thorburn Wins Witter Bynner Fellowship

Poet Laureate Charles Simic has chosen New Issues poet Matthew Thorburn for the 2008 Witter Bynner Fellowship and will introduce him at a reading on March 6 at the Library of Congress. The reading will be held at 6:45 p.m. on Thursday, March 6, in the Montpelier Room of the James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, D.C. If you're in the area, everyone is welcome.

Thorburn, of New York City, is a graduate of the University of Michigan and the MFA program at The New School. He is the author of Subject to Change (New Issues, 2004) and his poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Poetry, Seneca Review, Prairie Schooner and Indiana Review. His other honors include a fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the Mississippi Review Prize.

New Issues Reading at Western Michigan University

New Issues poets David Keplinger and Heather Sellers will read in WMU's Gwen Frostic Reading Series on Thursday, February 21, at 8 p.m. The reading will be at WMU's Little Theatre, Oliver Street at Oakland.

David Keplinger’s third volume of poetry, The Prayers of Others, was published by New Issues Press in 2006 and won the Colorado Book Award. New Issues also published his volume The Clearing and his translations of the Danish poet René Carsten Nielsen, The World Cut Out With Crooked Scissors. He was been awarded the T.S. Eliot Prize for his collection The Rose Inside (New Odyssey Press, 1999), as well as fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and the Katey Lehman Foundation.

Heather Sellers is the author of three volumes of poetry including The Boys I Borrow (New Issues, 2007), Drinking Girls and Their Dresses (Ahsahta, 2002), and the chapbook Your Whole Life. She is also the author of the short story collection Georgia Under Water (Sarabande, 2001), a children’s book, and a series of books on the practice of writing. Recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for fiction, Sellers is a professor at Hope College in Holland, Michigan.

RATTLE's E-Reviews

Visit Rattle's new site for e-reviews to read reviews of two New Issues titles: Standing in Line for the Beast by Jason Bredle and The Body is No Machine by Jennifer Perrine.
Standing in Line for the Beast reviewed by Peter Matera.
The Body is No Machine reviewed by Cameron Conaway.

Happy Birthday Herbert Scott

February 8 is an important day for New Issues because it's Herbert Scott's birthday. In the past, we would carve out some time in the evening and gather Herb and all the New Issues folks together for a night of Chinese take-out and good wine, talking shop and swapping stories. When we lost Herb to cancer on February 12, 2006, it was hard to imagine the press without its founder. But it was always Herb's vision to see the press continue to publish new work. I know he would be excited about where we are today.

Recently, at the AWP Conference in New York, I had the pleasure of running into a number of our authors. Each meeting was a reminder of how much New Issues has accomplished, how many books we've been able to share with the world, and how many people have benefited from our late Editor's vision.

We ask that you remember Herb today, and raise a glass of good wine to his memory. Cheers.

Signings in New York

Thursday:
2 - 3:00 / Heather Sellers, author of The Boys I Borrow
3 - 4:00 / David Keplinger, author of The Prayers of Others and The Clearing

Friday:
10 - 11:00 / Lee Upton, author of Undid in the Land of Undone

Saturday (bookfair is open to the public):
12 - 1:00 / Gretchen Mattox, author of Buddha Box and Goodnight Architecture

The Winner of the 2008 Green Rose Prize

The Editors of New Issues Poetry & Prose are pleased to announce the winner of the 2008 Green Rose Prize: Patty Seyburn, for her manuscript Hilarity. Patty Seyburn wins a $2,000 award and publication of her manuscript with New Issues in spring 2009.

Patty Seyburn has published two books of poems: Mechanical Cluster (Ohio State University Press, 2002) and Diasporadic (Helicon Nine Editions, 1998) which won the 1997 Marianne Moore Poetry Prize and the American Library Association's Notable Book Award for 2000. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals including The Paris Review, New England Review, Field, Slate, Crazyhorse, Cutbank, Quarterly West, Bellingham Review, Connecticut Review, Cimarron Review, Third Coast and Western Humanities Review. Seyburn grew up in Detroit, earned a BS and an MS in Journalism from Northwestern University, an MFA in Poetry from University of California, Irvine, and a Ph.D. in Poetry and Literature from the University of Houston. She is an Assistant Professor at California State University, Long Beach and co-editor of POOL: A Journal of Poetry, based in Los Angeles.

New Issues at the AWP Conference in NY

New Issues will be at table 17 in the bookfair of the AWP Conference in New York City and invites anyone attending the conference to visit the table. We will have special discounts and book signings by the authors of our recent titles. On Friday, February first, Geoff Rips, author of The Truth, will be featured in the AWP Award Series Reading, introduced by novelist Nicholas Delbanco. Delbanco chose The Truth to win the 2006 AWP Award for the Novel, an award administered by the Association of Writers and Writing Programs and published by New Issues.

Plays from One-Act Anthology Performed at Kalamazoo's Whole Art Theatre

Four plays from the New Issues anthology The Art of the One-Act, edited by Arnie Johnston and Deborah Ann Percy, will be performed at the Whole Art Theatre in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The plays to be performed as part of Whole Art's Late Night Series are Someday by Allison Williams, The Nancy by Bethany Gauthier, The Artist by Michael Hohnstein, and Last Call by Constance Alexander. The plays run from January 11-19 at the Whole Art Theatre, 246 North Kalamazoo Mall, Kalamazoo, Michigan. For more information please visit their website: www.wholeart.org.