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.