Art Auction at the Summer's End Celebration

We have a fabulous selection of donated items for our art auction. There are a number of beautiful ceramic items from artists like Hannah Fisher, Brenda Quinn, and Joan Carcia. Oil paintings by Erin Scott. Metal sculpture by John Running-Johnson. Letterpress edition of In the Palm of Space by Herbert Scott, printed by Sutton Hoo Press. Three Fiber Collages by Marie Combs made with hand-made paper, dryer lint, and found materials. Other items include new t-shirts, Japanese prints, Chinese rugs, and fortune-telling cards in six languages.

Come to New Issues's Summers End Celebration and Gala Fundraiser and make your bid! August 30th, 2-6 p.m., Bell's Eccentric Café.

Winner of the 2009 AWP Award for the Novel: Kevin Fenton

Kevin Fenton of Saint Paul, Minnesota, has won the 2009 AWP Award for the Novel for his manuscript titled Merit Badges. Jim Shepard, author of Like You'd Understand, Anyway, judged the contest for AWP. AWP is a national, nonprofit organization dedicated to serving American letters, writers, and programs of writing. Visit the 2009 AWP Award Series page for more information on the contest and to view the winners of the other categories.

Judge's Statement: "Merit Badges lays out for the reader an entire, if circumscribed, world, in all of its limitations and surprising possibilities, rendered with a heartening intelligence and tenderness and wit — "The weather was like me, only more so. The weather needed some counseling" — and in so doing reminds us of Simone Weil's understanding that attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity"

Kevin Fenton lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and works as an advertising writer and creative director. He has published stories in the Laurel Review, the Northwest Review, and Emprise Review; poetry in the Beloit Poetry Journal, and reviews and essays in Rain Taxi, the design quarterlies Émigré and Eye (London), and the Minneapolis StarTribune. An essay was anthologized in Looking Closer 2: Critical Writing On Graphic Design. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Minnesota and a J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School. He serves on the board of two organizations: Rain Taxi Review of Books and the Innocence Project of Minnesota.

New Issues will publish Merit Badges with an official release at the 2011 AWP Annual Conference in Washington D.C. - February 16-19, 2011.

August 30th: You're Invited to Attend Our Summer’s End Celebration & Gala Fundraiser

Western Michigan University’s literary press, New Issues Poetry & Prose, is happy to announce the Summer’s End Celebration & Gala Fundraiser. Please join us if you can at Bell’s Eccentric Café, 355 E. Kalamazoo Ave. on Sunday, August 30, from 2 to 6 p.m. A $5 donation is requested at the door, and food and refreshments will be available.

New Issues poets and Michigan writers John Rybicki, Heather Sellers, David Dodd Lee, Diane Seuss, and Jamie D’Agostino will read briefly from their poetry. The inimitable Bonnie Jo Campbell will serve as auctioneer for a variety of excellent paintings, rarities, and hilarities. Whiskey Before Breakfast will perform traditional Irish dance music.

New Issues Poetry & Prose, a non-profit literary press, was established in 1996 by poet and Editor Herbert S. Scott. New Issues publishes eight to twelve new titles each year with a focus on contemporary poetry. New Issues enjoys support from WMU, the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, and the generous donations of a supportive arts community.

For more information about the press and the fundraiser, call Marianne Swierenga at (269) 387-8185 or visit the press’s Web Site at www.wmich.edu/newissues.


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