PSA's 2009 New American Poets

Jericho Brown's book PLEASE was among the titles listed by the Poetry Society of America in their list of 2009 debut poetry collections. Check out his page:

Jericho Brown (via Poetry Society of America)

Talking Diamonds Book Release Party

Book Release Party for LINDA NEMEC FOSTER, celebrating the release of her new book of poetry, Talking Diamonds.
Thursday, November 19 at 7pm

Please join us for a reception for poet Linda Nemec Foster on Thursday, November 19 at 7:00 p.m. Linda will read from Talking Diamonds and sign copies. Please join them for a night of poetry and celebration. For more information please call at 616.458.8418.

Literary Life Bookstore & More, Inc.
758 Wealthy Street SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49503-5554

Jericho Brown Wins Whiting Award

Congratulations to Jericho Brown, author of Please, on receiving a 2009 Whiting Writers' Award, given to recognize emerging writers. "The awards, which are $50,000 each, totaling $500,000, have been given annually since 1985 to writers of exceptional talent and promise in early career." Joan Kane and Jay Hopler also received the award for poetry.

"Jericho Brown and Salvatore Scibona Among Whiting Award Winners" on the Poets & Writers website.

Accepting Submissions: 2010 New Issues Poetry Prize for a first book of poetry

New Issues is taking submissions for the 2010 New Issues Poetry Prize, an award given to a first book of poems. The winner will be selected by guest judge Linda Gregerson, author of Magnetic North. The winner will receive a $2,000 award and publication. The press often chooses additional manuscripts from the finalists to publish. Manuscripts are read blind.

Previous winners of the New Issues Poetry Prize include Judy Halebsky for Sky=Empty, selected by Marvin Bell; Justin Marks for A Million in Prizes, selected by Carl Phillips; and Sandra Beasley for Theories of Falling, selected by Marie Howe.

Guidelines:
* Eligibility: Poets writing in English who have not previously published or self-published a full-length (48+ pages) collection of poems. Chapbooks are okay.
* Please include a $15 reading fee. Checks should be made payable to New Issues Press.
* Postmark Deadline: November 30, 2009. The winning manuscript will be named in April 2010 and published in the spring of 2011.

Visit our website for complete guidelines.

Natasha Trethewey Interviews Jericho Brown

Natasha Trethewey interviews Jericho Brown for Southern Spaces: An interdisciplinary journal about the regions, places, and cultures of the American South. This interview was conducted on September 5, 2009, during the Decatur (Georgia) Book Festival.

VPR Reviews PLEASE

Susanna Childress reviews Jericho Brown's Please for Valparaiso Poetry Review, Vol XI, No. 1. A taste: "The poems are smart and raw, but readers will recognize this as distinct from clever or pitiable, in part because the writer does not ask his readers to recognize them as such. Any insight, any complexity here is the result of intricate tonal and metaphorical maneuvering, crafting, nuance: questioning and requiring all at once, the way the word please is both a desire and a demand." For the complete review, visit www.valpo.edu/vpr

Linda Nemec Foster on Verse Daily

Linda Nemec's poem "The Field Behind the Dying Father's House" was featured on Verse Daily. The poem is from Foster's recently published collection Talking Diamonds.

New Books: Talking Diamonds by Linda Nemec Foster

Talking Diamonds by Linda Nemec Foster, part of the Inland Seas Poetry Series funded by the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs.

"A humanist at heart, Linda Nemec Foster has demanded from her poetry an artfulness that engages ordinary life. With each new book her work has continued to mature, deepen, console, surprise, and Talking Diamonds is as wise as it is lovely."
—Stuart Dybek

Linda Nemec Foster received her MFA in creative writing from Goddard College in Vermont. She is the author of eight collections of poetry including Living in the Fire Nest, Amber Necklace from Gdańsk, and Listen to the Landscape.

Buy Talking Diamonds from Amazon.com and Spdbooks.org.

Publication Date: Oct 5, 2009
$15.00 paper | 75 Pages
ISBN: 978-1-930974-85-2

New Books: Missing Her by Claudia Keelan

Missing Her: New poems by Claudia Keelan

In poems performed via scat singing, via documentary, poems devoted to the sui generis, Missing Her redefines the elegy as a seeking statement.

"Keelan's work, always politically engaged, here takes a tender and personal turn. Much of what is mourned in these interwoven elegies is private, close in, but even the larger, more public themes — the Vietnam War, Jesus, the oil industry, September 11 — are brought to an intimate scale. The central long poem 'Everybody's Autobiography' achieves a masterful fusion of political history, personal responsibility, and communal grief. A deep-feeling collection not afraid to look loss in the face."
—Cole Swensen

"Missing Her is Keelan's sixth collection of poems. Parts of it will stay with you long after reading..." Vince Corvaia, NewPages.com

Available through Amazon.com and Small Press Distribution

Publication Date: October 5, 2009
$15.00 paper | 79 Pages
ISBN: 978-1-930974-86-9

Best American Poetry 2009

Congratulations to Lance Larsen (Erasable Walls, New Issues, 1998). His poem "Why do you keep putting animals in your poems?" appeared in Best American Poetry 2009, as did John Rybicki's (Traveling at High Speeds, New Issues, 1996)  "This Tape Measure Made of Light," which originally appeared in WMU's Third Coast. Friend of New Issues, Susan Blackwell Ramsey, also had her poem included: "Pickled Heads: St. Petersburg"

Green Rose Prize: Sept 30th Deadline

Reminder: The September 30th deadline is a postmark deadline. Please has submissions in the mail to us by Sept. 30th. New & Selected manuscripts are eligible for the award.

Guidelines:
*Eligibility: Poets writing in English who have already published one or more full-length collections of poetry. We will consider individual collections and volumes of new and selected poems. Besides the winner, New Issues may publish as many as three additional manuscripts from this competition.
*Please include a $20 reading fee. Checks should be made payable to New Issues Press.
*Postmark Deadline: September 30, 2009. The winning manuscript will be named in January 2010 and published in the spring of 2011.

Visit our website for complete guidelines.

Jericho Brown's PLEASE Wins American Book Award

The Before Columbus Foundation is pleased to announce that Please by Jericho Brown has been selected as a winner of the thirtieth annual American Book Awards for 2009. Other winning poetry collection for 2009 include Linda Gregg's All of It Singing and Jack Spicer's My Vocabulary Did This to Me.

The authors will be presented with the awards at a ceremony and reception on Sunday, October 11th, 7:30, at the Nuyorican Poets Café, 236 East 3rd St., New York, NY. Authors attending will read selections from their works and a reception will follow the ceremony. This event is open to the public.  For more information, call (510) 642-7321.

The American Book Awards were created to provide recognition for outstanding literary achievement from the entire spectrum of America's diverse literary community. The purpose of the awards is to recognize literary excellence without limitations or restrictions. There are no categories, no nominees, and therefore no losers. The award winners range from well-known and established writers to under-recognized authors and first works. There are no quotas for diversity, the winners list simply reflects it as a natural process. The Before Columbus Foundation views American culture as inclusive and has always considered the term "multicultural" to be not a description of various categories, groups, or "special interests," but rather as the definition of all of American literature. The Awards are not bestowed by an industry organization, but rather are a writers' award given by other writers.

Please, released in 2008, recently sold through its second printing. A third printing is underway and books will be available again in early October.

Hayden's Ferry Review Blog: Book Review: Theories of Falling

Hayden's Ferry Review Blog: Book Review: Theories of Falling

John Gallaher, Wayne Miller and Michael Robins at the KBAC

"Poets in Print" Reading Series at the Kalamazoo Book Arts Center
Saturday, Sept. 12, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.

Poets John Gallaher, Wayne Miller and Michael Robins present readings from their work on Saturday, September 12. Broadsides featuring the poets and other works will be available during the event for sale and signing.

John Gallaher is the author of the books of poetry, Gentlemen in Turbans, Ladies in Cauls (Spuyten Duyvil, 2001), The Little Book of Guesses, winner of the Levis Poetry Prize, from Four Way Books, and Map of the Folded World, from The University of Akron Press, as well as the free online chapbook, Guidebook from Blue Hour Press. He is co-editor of The Laurel Review and GreenTower Press, and recent poems appear in Best American Poetry 2008, Denver Quarterly, Crazyhorse, Field, and The New England Review. Currently he's working on a co-authored manuscript with the poet G.C. Waldrep, titled Your Father on the Train of Ghosts.

Wayne Miller is the author of two poetry collections: The Book of Props (Milkweed, 2009) and Only the Senses Sleep (New Issues, 2006), and his chapbook, O City, is forthcoming from Cinematheque Press. He is also co-editor of the anthology New European Poets (Graywolf, 2008) and translator of Moikom Zeqo's I Don't Believe in Ghosts (BOA, 2007). The recipient of six Poetry Society of America awards, Wayne lives in Kansas City and teaches at the University of Central Missouri, where he serves as Editor of Pleiades: A Journal of New Writing.

Michael Robins is the author of The Next Settlement (UNT Press, 2007), which was selected for the Vassar Miller Prize. He is a contributing editor at Born Magazine and his work has recently appeared or is forthcoming in AGNI, Crazyhorse, A Handsome Journal, Ploughshares and The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Prose Poetry (Rose Metal Press, 2010). Born in Portland, Oregon, he holds degrees from the University of Oregon and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Three new KBAC broadsides featuring work by each poet are being created by KBAC artists Jeff Abshear, Michael Dunn and Katie Platte. These will be introduced at the reading and for sale.

This event is free and refreshments are served. Doors open at 6:30

Justin Marks NYC Readings

Thursday, September 10th, at 7 p.m. for the 7th Season Kickoff of d.a. levy lives: celebrating the renegade press. ACA Galleries, 529 W. 20th St., 5th Floor, NYC. Readings from Mary Walker Graham, Justin Marks, Kate Schapira, Kim Gek Lin Short, Sampson Starkweather, and Chris Tonelli. Music from Erik Schoster of He Can Jog.

Saturday, September 12th, at 2 p.m.
Readings from Tao Lin & Justin Marks
The Grand Central Branch of the New York Public Library: 135 East 46th Street, in the community/program room, which is on the upper level. Elevator available. Phone: (212) 621-0670. blog: grandcentralpoets.blogspot.com

Sunday, September 13th, at 7:45 p.m. at Unnameable Books in Brooklyn, 600 Vanderbilt Ave. (between Dean St & St Marks Ave)

Accepting Submissions: The 2010 Green Rose Prize

New Issues is now taking submissions for the 2010 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 Malinda Markham, Patty Seyburn, Jon Pineda, Noah Eli Gordon, Joan Houlihan, Hugh Seidman, and Christine Hume.

Guidelines:
*Eligibility: Poets writing in English who have already published one or more full-length collections of poetry. We will consider individual collections and volumes of new and selected poems. Besides the winner, New Issues may publish as many as three additional manuscripts from this competition.
*Please include a $20 reading fee. Checks should be made payable to New Issues Press.
*Postmark Deadline: September 30, 2009. The winning manuscript will be named in January 2010 and published in the spring of 2011.

Visit our website for complete guidelines.

New Issues Fundraiser a Success

New Issues would like to thank everyone involved in making our Summer's End Celebration and Gala Fundraiser a huge success. Whiskey Before Breakfast was a musical hit. Diane Seuss, Jamie D'Agostino, Heather Sellers, David Dodd Lee and John Rybicki gave great readings. Even the weather cooperated: after a week of cold and rainy weather the sky cleared and the sun shone.

Bonnie Jo Campbell and crew led the art auction with panache and the bidding was heated. The lucky winners went home with gorgeous pieces of art.

A final shout out to Bell's Eccentric Cafe. Without their fantastic space this event would not have been the same.

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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Bradley Paul Wins AWP's Donald Hall Prize in Poetry

Congratulations to Bradley Paul, author of The Obvious (New Issues, 2004), on winning AWP's Donald Hall Prize in Poetry. Jean Valentine selected Paul's manuscript The Animals All Are Gathering for the award. It will be published by Pittsburgh University Press. Valentine praised the book saying, "In this original and wonderfully energetic book, Bradley Paul moves from humor to mockery to play to anger to grief, and sometimes all at once. This poetry shifts, it slams, it hammers, it thinks; it corrodes our sorrow and foolishness; it captures our national haplessness, sad and firing and still."

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."

A Million in Prizes Reviewed

Jackie Clark reviews Justin Marks' A Million in Prizes and chapbook Voir Dire for Coldfront Magazine. "Justin Marks’s first book of poems, A Million in Prizes, chosen by Carl Phillips as winner of the 2008 New Issues Poetry Prize, is an earnest gem of self-consciousness and naïve wonder."

Read the whole review on Coldfront's website.

Upstate NY Poetry Reading

Thursday, June 18th at 7:30pm
Poetry Reading in the coffeehouse featuring Martin Walls, Karen Swenson and Phil Memmer / Creekside Books and Coffee, 35 Fennell Street, Skaneateles, NY

Enjoy a glass of wine, appetizers, coffee, and dessert while listening to three award-winning Upstate poets, who will read from newly released books:

*Karen Swenson — poet, journalist, and travel writer, author of Pilgrim Into Silence (Tiger Bark, 2008). Read some of Karen’s work online at members.lsa.net/wisewomensweb/swenson.html

*Martin Walls — Library of Congress fellow, author of Small Human Detail in Care of National Trust (New Issues, 2000) and his new collection The Solvay Process (Tiger Bark, 2009). Walls’ work can be read online at www.smallhumandetail.com

*Phil Memmer — Director of the Syracuse Downtown Writers Center, winner of a recent Adirondack Literary Award for The Threat of Pleasure (Word Press, 2007) and author of “Lucifer: A Hagiography” (Lost Horse, 2009): www.philipmemmer.com

For more information about the reading, contact Erika Davis at erika@creeksidebooks.com

Carrie McGath's June 5th Art Hop Poetry Reading

Carrie McGath's June 5th Art Hop Poetry Reading: Friday, June 5 at at the Fire Gallery (across from Washington Square branch of Kalamazoo Public Library)

Carrie’s collection, Small Murders (New Issues, 2006) and her chapbooks, Ward Eighty-One and The Chase will also be available for purchase.
Doors open at 8 / open mic @ 8:30 / feature @ 9
$3 admission for students with id / $5 general admission

Scott Blackwood Reading in Houston, TX

Poison Pen Reading Series: Scott Blackwood, author of We Agreed to Meet Just Here, and Brian Nicolet
Thursday, July 31, 8:30 PM / Poison Girl Cocktail Lounge: 1641 Westheimer Rd, Houston, TX 77006

Justin Marks: Poetry Readings

The So and So Series
Justin Marks, Kathryn l. Pringle, and Chris Vitiello
Saturday, May 16th, 8pm
Morning Times, 8 E. Hargett Street, Raleigh, NC

KGB Poetry: Justin Marks & Jeffrey Yang
KGB Bar, 85 East 4th Street, New York City, NY
Monday, May 18th, 7-9pm

Justin Marks's Writer's Digest Interview

Robert Lee Brewer posted an interview with Justin Marks, author of A Million in Prizes, to his blog, Poetic Asides, on the Writer's Digest website.

A small sampling of the interview:

Robert: If you could pass on only one piece of advice to fellow poets, what would it be?

Justin: I've been given such large heaps of bad advice over the years, I'm hesitant to offer any of my own. So maybe my advice should be, “don’t take any advice.” Then again, I've also gotten some good advice that has often helped sustain me: Trust yourself. Don't let anyone or thing stop you. Be willing to change. Persevere. Stuff like that. That’s my advice.

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

Stacie Cassarino Reads at Skylight Books

Stacie Cassarino will read from her newly released poetry book Zero at the Bone at LA bookstore Skylight Books. (more info, or call 323-660-1175)
Time: Saturday, June 13, 2009 5:00 p.m.
Location: Skylight Books, 1818 N. Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90027


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Two New Poetry Titles for May

Zero at the Bone by Stacie Cassarino:

"Of the many ways of knowing the world, Stacie Cassarino in her elegant and poignant first book of poems, Zero at the Bone, reminds us of the primacy of the senses." —Michael Collier

Stacie Cassarino lives in Brooklyn, New York and Los Angeles, California. She is a recipient of the “Discovery”/The Nation prize and the Astraea Foundation Writer’s Fund, a finalist for the Rona Jaffe Writers’ Award, and nominee twice for the Pushcart Prize. She has worked as a chef, and has held teaching positions at Middlebury College in Vermont & Pratt Institute in NYC. She is currently a candidate for the Ph.D. at UCLA.
(more info)

Dirt Angels by Donald Platt:

"Donald Platt’s aptly titled and arresting fourth collection of poems, Dirt Angels, examines how we exist in states of physical disrepair, decay, and disability: the world’s transience exhibited in the slow degradation of our very consciousness and flesh." —Paisley Rekdal

Donald Platt is a professor of English at Purdue University. His first two collections, Fresh Peaches, Fireworks,& Guns and Cloud Atlas, were published by Purdue University Press as winners of the Verna Emery Poetry Prize. His third book, My Father Says Grace, was published by the University of Arkansas Press. He lives with his wife, the poet Dana Roeser, and their two daughters in West Lafayette, Indiana.
(more info)

Stacie Cassarino Gets Broadsided

Visit the Broadsided Press website to download the new broadside of Stacie Cassarino's poem "Snowshoe to Otter Creek," beautifully illustrated by artist Caleb Brown. Stacie's new book Zero at the Bone was released this spring from New Issues.

Paul Guest on The Story

Listen to "Paul Guest's Body of Poetry" on thestory.org. Paul is the author of The Resurrection of the Body and the Ruin of the World, chosen by Campbell McGrath for the 2002 New Issues Poetry Prize. His latest book is titled My Index of Slightly Horrifying Knowledge.

Review: The World Cut Out with Crooked Scissors

The World Cut Out with Crooked Scissors: Selected Prose Poems by Carsten René Nielsen was reviewed by Nicky Beer in the Spring 2009 issue of The Georgia Review.

A sample: "Nielsen's World, comprising selections from his three latest books, represents work from that theoretical space that often marks the transition from 'young' to 'midcareer' poet—work that seems to straddle the distance between the stylistic extremes of his peers and predecessors with élan, allowing glimpses into an often fragmented but hypnotic poetic interior."

Check out the Spring 2009 issue for the complete review, and the New Issues website for more info about The World Cut Out with Crooked Scissors by Carsten René Nielsen. Translated from the Danish by David Keplinger & the Author.

"Lapwing" by Carsten René Nielsen

In a chest of drawers with seven hundred drawers, each a different shape and size, lies a lapwing's egg somewhere. The thief is a freckled twelve-year-old girl who has to find the egg before the sun goes down. She knows that if she finds the egg and breaks it into her face, the freckles will disappear. But in the drawers she opens there is only water, only cheeping lapwing chicks. She climbs higher and higher, drawer over drawer, and finally just one drawer's left, at the very top, and the sun has now almost vanished. But it sticks, and she pulls and toils and tugs with her spindly arms, thrusts her feet against it, heaves and yanks and begins to cry. Then at last the drawer gives. It's been inserted upside down, and an egg falls out and onto the floor. With despair she stares at the egg as the lapwings start shrieking. They are all hand puppets made of old socks, and we, who hide behind the furniture in the living room, have to hold up a hand to our mouths not to laugh.

Reminder: AWP Panel Proposals Due Friday

There are only a few days left to submit panel proposals for the 2010 AWP Conference & Bookfair in Denver. The conference will be held from April 7-10, 2010 at the Hyatt Regency Denver & Colorado Convention Center. The deadline for proposals is May 1, 2009. To submit a proposal, please visit: www.awpwriter.org/conference/2010proposal.php

Diane Seuss Wins Juniper Prize

Congratulations to Diane Seuss for winning the University of Massachusetts Press Juniper Prize for Poetry, judged by Pulitzer-prize-winning poet James Tate. Diane's first book, It Blows You Hollow, came out with New Issues Press in 1998. She is writer-in-residence at Kalamazoo College.

Read the whole story here: "Poetic justice: K-College writer revels in offers of two book deals in 11 days" on Mlive.com.

Winner of the 2009 New Issues Poetry Prize

Judy Halebsky has won the 2009 New Issues Poetry Prize for her manuscript Sky=Empty. Marvin Bell, author of Mars Being Red, judged. Judy wins a $2,000 award and publication of her manuscript in the spring of 2010.

“I was caught by the clarity of mind and expression of Sky=Empty — a quality distinctive at any time. I was caught by the ear and eye, the tone of voice, and the easy movement between inner and outer. The respect for language is tangible. This is a beautiful, engaging first book, the sort of book one may buy a second copy of to give away.” —Marvin Bell, from the Judge’s Citation

Judy Halebsky is a member of the Sacramento Poetry Center’s Tuesday night workshop and has an M.F.A. from Mills College. Her poems have appeared in Runes, Five Fingers Review and Eleven Eleven. Residencies at the MacDowell Colony and the Millay Colony have supported her work. Originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia, she is currently in Japan studying noh theatre on a research scholarship from the Japanese Ministry of Education (MEXT).

Keith Ekiss’s manuscript Pima Road Notebook was named runner-up by the judge and will be published in the fall of 2010.

Ekiss is a former Wallace Stegner Fellow and the Jones Lecturer in Poetry at Stanford University for 2007-09. He is the past recipient of scholarships and residencies from the Bread Loaf and Squaw Valley Writers’ Conferences, Santa Fe Art Institute, Millay Colony for the Arts, and the Petrified Forest National Park. He is the Artistic Director of the Center for the Art of Translation in San Francisco.

Sandra Beasley Wins 2009 Barnard Women Poets Prize

Barnard College announced today that writer Joy Harjo has chosen Sandra Beasley's I Was the Jukebox as the winner of the 2009 Barnard Women Poets Prize for the best second collection of poems by an American woman poet. Beasley's first book, Theories of Falling, won the 2007 New Issues Poetry Prize.
www.barnard.edu/newnews/news041209

Deanne Lundin at Crazy Wisdom Bookstore

Deanne Lundin will read from her work Wednesday, April 15 at 7:00 p.m. at Crazy Wisdom Bookstore 118 S. Main St. Ann Arbor, Michigan. Lundin is the director of the Works-In-Progress Reading Series at the bookstore for the past four years. The series has brought poets and fiction writers from across the state and country to read for enthusiastic audiences and extended question and answer sessions.

A tireless supporter of other authors, Lundin’s work has been widely published (both fiction and poetry) in literary journals including The Kenyon Review, The Antioch Review, Prairie Schooner, The Colorado Review and online magazines as well. She has won numerous fiction and poetry awards including the Hopwood Award, and is author of The Ginseng Hunter’s Notebook published by New Issues Press. She has studied at Harvard and the University of Michigan and received her MFA from there in poetry. She has been a fellow at Breadloaf and most recently was writer-in-resident at Ragdale Foundation in Lake Forest, Illinois.

David Baker has said of her work: “Deanne Lundin’s The Ginseng Hunter’s Notebook is an authentic poetic harmonium, blending a probative and anxious post-modernism with a nearly primitive lyrical sensibility. I am struck and pleased by her lucid sense of the present, clarifying the moment as we live it, but equally awe by the transfomration of her fractious narratives, wrung from her wide and wild historicl flair. Hildegard of Bingen meets the Internet, indeed! Here are potions, conjurations, folkloric remedies, like voices from a vexing past –are they our future? are they our demons? – as acrid, as overwhelming as they are brilliant and healing. The Ginseng Hunter's Notebook is a marvelous debut.”

Free and open to the public.

New Issues Releases Two New Poetry Titles

A Million in Prizes by Justin Marks

A Million in Prizes was selected by Carl Phillips as winner of the 2008 New Issues Poetry Prize, an award for a first book of poetry. Phillips, in his judge's citation, writes, "A Million in Prizes seduces in the best possible way: subtly, with a poignant wit, and a sly charm." Marks is the founder and editor of Kitchen Press Chapbooks in New York City and author of the chapbook Voir Dire (Rope-a-Dope Press). More Info

Hilarity by Patty Seyburn

Hilarity is Seyburn's third book of poetry and winner of the 2008 Green Rose Prize, awarded for a full-length collection of poetry by an established poet. Seyburn is an assistant professor at California State University, Long Beach, and co-editor of POOL: A Journal of Poetry based in Los Angeles. Poet David Citino notes that Seyburn's poems are "filled with a strange, ambitious and compelling music made of the mythic, momentous and mundane days of our lives." More Info

Gently Read Literature Review: Caroline Klocksiem on Sandra Beasley’s Theories of Falling

Check out the internet journal Gently Read Literature for a new review: "Risks and Expanse: Caroline Klocksiem on Sandra Beasley’s Theories of Falling"

"Beasley does not grasp her poems too tightly. They are not owned, but shared moments of language. What is true is the experience of the language, the breathtaking effect of a sharp-focused lens."

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:
"Goldfish Are Ordinary" by Stacie Cassarino
"The Split Ends of My Beard Have Split Ends" by Justin Marks
"My Brother's Mirror" by Donald Platt
"What I Disliked about the Pleistocene Era" by Patty Seyburn

Reading: Agriculture Reader, Issue 3

Celebrate the release of Agriculture Reader's 3rd Issue with readings from Sharon Mesmer, Justin Marks (A Million in Prizes, New Issues), Mark Doten, and (the indomitable) Mike McDonough.

Thursday, April 2nd, 7:30. @ Stain Bar (in Williamsburg) - Stain Bar is 1 block off the Grand Avenue stop on the L train, at 766 Grand Avenue.

Admission is free. PLUS: Recession special deep discounts on the new issue. For a sneak preview of Issue 3, see our fancy new website: theagreader.com

WMU: New Issues Reading

Patty Seyburn and Jericho Brown will be reading from their New Issues titles as part of Western Michigan University's Gwen Frostic Reading Series on Thursday April 2 at 8 p.m. in Little Theater.

Patty Seyburn’s third book of poems, Hilarity, won the 2008 Green Rose Prize given by New Issues Press. She has published two books of poems: Mechanical Cluster and Diasporadic, which won the 1997 Marianne Moore Poetry Prize and the American Library Association’s Notable Book Award for 2000. 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.

In a time when there’s little to laugh about, Patty Seyburn’s Hilarity is an epic punch line: sparkling and smart. —Carol Muske-Dukes

Jericho Brown is the author of Please, selected as a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry as well as the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry. He worked as speechwriter for the Mayor of New Orleans before receiving his Ph.D. in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Houston. He also holds an MFA from the University of New Orleans and a BA from Dillard University, and he has served as poetry editor at Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts. The recipient of a Cave Canem Fellowship, two scholarships to the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, and two travel fellowships to the Krakow Poetry Seminar in Poland, Brown is currently an Assistant Professor of English at the University of San Diego where he teaches creative writing.

Fresh, deeply felt, formally adventurous, Please is a stunning debut. —Mark Doty


The 2009 Gwen Frostic Reading Series
Western Michigan University

PLEASE Named Finalist for a Lammy

Jericho Brown's debut poetry collection Please has been named a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry.

Other finalists include:
* Want, Rick Barot, Sarabande Press
* Fire to Fire, Mark Doty, HarperCollins
* Now You're the Enemy, James Allen Hall, Univ. of Arkansas Press
* My Vocabulary Did This to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer, Jack Spicer, edited by Peter Gizzi & Kevin Killian, Wesleyan University Press

The 21st Annual Lambda Literary Awards (Lammys) will take place on Thursday, May 28, 2009.

The Lammys recognize and honor the best in GLBT literature. The nominated books reflect a diverse range of distinguished voices from the GLBT community and highlight the full range of achievement in 2008 GLBT literature. Eighty judges, representing a broad cross-section of the GLBT literary world, will select a single book in each category to win the prestigious Lambda Literary Award, considered to be the highest accolade for a book from the GLBT community. Spanning 22 categories, 105 finalists are picked from 397 books representing 72 publishers.

Finalists in all categories are now listed on the Lambda Literary Foundation Website.

The 17th Annual Chesapeake Poetry Festival

March 18 - March 21, 2009

The main event, An Evening with the Poets will take place at 7:00pm on Friday, March 20, and will feature three nationally known poets - Dorianne Laux, Tim Seibles, and Jon Pineda (Translator's Diary, New Issues 2008) - who will read from their works. Prince Books will sell the poets' books.

More info on their website, or contact Margaret D. Stone, Information Specialist, Russell Memorial Library, 2808 Taylor Road, Chesapeake, VA 23321 - (757) 410-7016

March is Small Press Month

Happy Small Press Month! Here at New Issues we're very proud of our writers, and our writers have all been very busy lately. Here are just a few examples of the awards and attention our writers have received recently:

Jennifer Perrine, author of The Body is No Machine (New Issues, 2007) won the 2008 Ledge Poetry Award for “A Transparent Man Is Hard to Find.” She received $1,000, and her poem will be published in the Ledge.

Marc Sheehan of Grand Haven, MI, author of Greatest Hits (New Issues, 1998) won the 2008 Richard Snyder Publication Prize for his poetry collection Field Guide to the Native Emotions of Michigan. He received $1,000 and publication of his book by Ashland Poetry Press. Elton Glaser judged.

Katie Peterson, author of This One Tree (New Issues, 2006), and Jericho Brown, author of Please (New Issues, 2008), have both received a Bunting Fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.

Sandra Beasley's memoir Don't Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life was taken by Crown. Poet and American Scholar editor Beasley is the author of the poetry collection Theories of Falling (New Issues, 2008). Crown's pub date is late 2010.

Lewis Horton, a contributor to the Art of the One-Act anthology, just released his novel, The Writing Class, published by Aberdeen Bay Books.

Elaine Sexton's Causeway (New Issues, 2008) has been named a finalist for the Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry. Jericho Brown's Please (New Issues, 2008) has been named a finalist for the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry. The Publishing Triangle hands out both awards.

New Issues Poets Read in New York City

Happy Small Press Month! If you're on the East Coast, take a trip to the city for two great poetry readings in New York City.

Sunday, March 29th, 6 pm
New Issues Poets Reading
Cornelia Street Cafe, 29 Cornelia Street, NYC

Sandra Beasley - Theories of Falling
Myronn Hardy - Approaching the Center - The Headless Saints
Alexander Long - Vigil
Elaine Sexton - Sleuth - Causeway
Matthew Thorburn - Subject to Change

McNally Jackson Features New Issues in their Indie Press Series:

Tuesday, March 31st, 7 pm
New Issues Poets/Indie Press Series - McNally Jackson, 52 Prince Street, NYC

Sandra Beasley - Theories of Falling
Myronn Hardy - Approaching the Center - The Headless Saints
Alexander Long - Vigil
Martha Rhodes - Perfect Disappearance
Elaine Sexton - Sleuth - Causeway

We Agreed to Meet Just Here Austin, Texas, Book Release Party

Please join us to celebrate the official Austin, TX, release of Scott Blackwood's We Agreed to Meet Just Here, Winner of the 2007 AWP Award for the Novel.

Friday, March 13 @5:30 p.m. - Eiler Park (next to Deep Eddy Pool, 401 Deep Eddy Ave, Austin, Texas.

Sponsored by Barnes & Noble Booksellers and Live Oak Brewery. A portion of the sales from this special release party will be donated to the Austin Library Foundation.

Contact: Janice Langlinais - Community Relations Manager. Barnes & Noble Arboretum (crm3536@bn.com) for additional information.



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You Heard It Here First: A Poetry Reading

Sat. March 21st, 2009 2:00 PM

Enjoy standout debut collections with Sandra Beasley (Theories of Falling), Joseph O. Legaspi (Imago), Elizabeth Hadaway (Fire Baton), and Philip White (The Clearing).

Gravity Lounge
103 S. First Street, Charlottesville, VA 22902

New Issues @ the 2009 AWP Conference in Chicago

If you're like us, you're probably already making plans for AWP, scheduling out every minute. But in all the rushing about at AWP, make sure to come visit the New Issues tables (451 & 452) at the AWP Bookfair in the Hilton Chicago, Northwest Hall, Lower Level. We'll have a special conference discount on all our titles, plus the steal-of-the-day on scratch and dent copies. See you there!

Bookfair Book Signings:
Friday, Feb 13:
10-11: Sandra Beasley
11-12: Elaine Sexton
3-4: Jericho Brown

Saturday, Feb 14:
10-11: Mark Irwin
1-2: Myronn Hardy

Special Events:

Friday, 1:30-2:45 p.m. - AWP Award Series Reading. (Sharon Dolin, Scott Blackwood, David Vann, and Sharon White) A reading featuring AWP's 2007 Award Series winners.

Friday, 4:30-5:45 p.m. - Herb Scott Tribute. (Beth Martinelli, Malena Morling, Metta Sama, Shirley Clay Scott, James D'Agostino, Gladys Cardiff) The panelists will pay tribute to poet, editor, mentor, professor, and husband, Herb Scott, author of Groceries, Disguises, and Sleeping Woman, editor of New Issues Press, and professor at Western Michigan University. Herb Scott passed in February 2006, and this panel will present a multitude of voices to remember the many sides to Scott, to discuss the importance of building communities, mentoring, and small presses, and to recall his voice by reading some of his work.