Frostic Reading, Thursday February 2nd

January 2012

About Us New Issues  Poetry & Prose  was established in 1996 by poet Herbert S. Scott.   Congratulations, Khaled Mattawa! Tocqueville winner of The Poetry Center Book Award The Arab American Book Award Academy of American Poets Fellowship   Spring 2012 the body | of space| in the shape of the human by Andrew Allport The Radio Tree by Corey Marks Two-Headed Nightingale by Shara Lessley Fall 2012 The Right Place to Jump by Peter Covino The Frame Called Ruin by Hadara Bar-Nadav A Penance by CJ Evans

We would be honored if you would join us for the Gwen Frostic Reading Series. The first reading of the series features novelist Kevin Fenton and poet Rachel Eliza Griffiths. It will be held Thursday, February 2nd at 8:00 p.m. in WMU's Bernhard Center, rooms 157 & 159. This reading series usually draws a large crowd, so we encourage you to arrive early. The reading is free, and last approximately 45 minutes. Books will be available to purchase, and the authors will be happy to sign their works.   Hope you can join us!   Kevin Fenton's first novel, Merit Badges (New Issues), won the AWP Prize for the Novel. Publishers Weekly writes,  "An impressive vitality, droll wit, and affecting nostalgia lift Fenton's first novel." His fiction has appeared in the Northwest Review, the Laurel Review, and the Emprise Review. His writing on graphic design has been anthologized in Looking Closer 2 and Emigre No. 70: The Look Back Issue. He holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Minnesota and a J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School. He lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota and works as an advertising writer and creative director.   www.meritbadgesthenovel.com   Rachel Eliza Griffiths is the author of Mule & Pear (New Issues), Miracle Arrhythmia (Willow Books) and The Requited Distance (Sheep Meadow Press).  Reviewer Roxane Gay (The Rumpus) writes, "Griffiths tackled sex(uality), slavery, the strength of women, the mark of history, and the power of language, in fierce poems that were so memorable I return to them over and over." A Cave Canem Fellow, she is the recipient of fellowships from Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, Vermont Studio Center, New York State Summer Writers Institute, the Cave Canem Foundation and others. A photographer and painter, her visual work has been published widely in both national and international magazines and journals. She teaches at Sarah Lawrence College and lives in New York.  www.rachelelizagriffiths.com February Art Hop at Fire, featuring Rachel Eliza Griffiths  Mule & Pear   Griffiths will also read her poetry on Friday, February 3rd at Fire Historical and Cultural Arts Collaborative, 1249 Portage Rd., where her artwork will be on display as part of Kalamazoo's February Art Hop.  www.thisisfire.com     Our titles are available online through Amazon.com and spdbooks.org.

New Book: Merit Badges by Kevin Fenton

Merit Badges
by Kevin Fenton

AWP Award Series in the Novel
Judge: Jim Shepard

Follow four friends as they move from The Brady Bunch to Seinfeld, from junior high to middle management. There is Quint, whose rebellion frays into self-destruction; Slow, who struggles to become the world's first teenage father figure; Chimes, who fears losing his friends while picking up a 7-10 split; and Barb who escapes the conformity of Minnisapa only to find herself returning by dark of night. You will feel as if you've always lived in Minnisapa, Minnesota. And you will never underestimate nice kids from the Midwest again.

"An impressive vitality, droll wit, and affecting nostalgia lift Fenton's first novel about four high school pals growing up together during the 1970s in the fictional town of Minnisapa, Minn. . . . Eminently readable prose . . ."—Publisher's Weekly

Launch Party/Reading: Common Good Books (Virginia Street Swedenborgian Church 170 Virgina) St Paul, January 12, 2011: 7:30 P.M

$26.00 cloth | 233 Pages
ISBN-13: 978-1-930974-95-1
Publication Date: Jan 2011
Buy: Amazon.com | spdbooks.org

Also visit:
Merit Badges @ New Issues
www.meritbadgesthenovel.com
Merit Badges the Novel | Facebook Group

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.