Reading Tonight

Seth Abramson & Matthew Guenette

Kalamazoo Book Arts Center 

 

Poets in Print: Saturday, Nov. 12, 2011, 7-9 p.m.
Broadside artists: Elizabeth King and a collaboration between Alta Price and Jonah Koppel

Join us for the Poets in Print reading featuring Seth Abramson and Matthew Guenette. Readings are free and open to the public. Doors open at 6:30 with time to browse current exhibitions, the broadsides and books by the poets available for purchase and signing.

Seth Abramson is the author of two collections of poetry, Northerners, winner of the 2010 Green Rose Prize from New Issues Poetry & Prose, and The Suburban Ecstasies (Ghost Road Press, 2009). He is also the co-author of the forthcoming third edition of The Creative Writing MFA Handbook (Continuum, 2012). In 2008 he was awarded the J. Howard and Barbara M. J. Wood Prize for Poetry, and his poems have appeared in such magazines and anthologies as Best New Poets 2008, American Poetry Review, New American Writing, Boston Review, Colorado Review, and New York Quarterly. A regular contributor to Poets & Writers magazine and The Huffington Post, he is a graduate of Harvard Law School, the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and is currently a doctoral candidate in English Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Matthew Guenette is the author of Sudden Anthem, winner of the 2007 American Poetry Journal Book Prize from Dream Horse Press. His latest book, American Busboy, a Finalist and Editor’s Choice of the 2010 University of Akron Press Poetry Prize, will be published in 2011. His work has appeared in Another Chicago Magazine, Barn Owl Review, DIAGRAM, Cream City Review, The Greensboro Review, Indiana Review, The Spoon River Poetry Review, Southern Indiana Review, and other publications. He is an English instructor at Madison College in Madison, Wisconsin.
 

 

Kalamazoo Book Arts Center

326 W. Kalamazoo Avenue, Suite 103A

Kalamazoo, MI

First Book Submissions

We are currently accepting submissions for our First Book Prize. This year's judge is Jean Valentine:


Jean Valentine won the Yale Younger Poets Award for her first book, Dream Barker, in 1965. Her eleventh book of poetry is Break the Glass, just out from Copper Canyon Press. Her previous collection, Little Boat was published by Wesleyan in 2007. Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems 1965–2003 was the winner of the 2004 National Book Award for Poetry. The recipient of the 2009 Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets, Valentine has taught at Sarah Lawrence, New York University, and Columbia.

Submissions may be sent to:

New Issues Poetry Prize

New Issues Poetry & Prose

Western Michigan University

1903 W. Michigan Ave.

Kalamazoo, MI 49008-5463

Entries can also be uploaded to submishmash: 

http://newissuespoetryprose.submishmash.com/submit.

Fall 2011

New Issues Poetry & Prose FALL 2011  Fall releases from New Issues by Susanna Childress, Lizzie Hutton, and Rachel Eliza Griffiths are now available for pre-order. About Us New Issues was established in 1996 by poet Herbert S. Scott.    Winner of the 2011 New Issues Poetry Prize Andrew Allport has won the 2011 New Issues Poetry Prize for his manuscript the body | of space | in the shape of the human. David Wojahn, author of World Tree, judged. Andrew wins a $2,000 award and publication of his manuscript in the spring of 2012 Dear Friends, Thank you so much for making our anniversary a success! We had a wonderful time, and enjoyed a sampling of Susanna Childress' and Lizzie Hutton's new works, which will be available very soon. Here's a preview of our third fall release, Rachel Eliza Griffiths' Mule & Pear: Mule & Pear, New Poems by Rachel Eliza Griffiths Sincerely, Kimberly Kolbe New Issues Poetry & Prose Here's a poet whose intelligence and imagination value truth above any of its enemies: comfort, decoration, lovely music, the blurring of the line between the personal and the human. The poems feel emotionally and intellectually spontaneous, as if we were present at their coming-into-being, a genuine writer-reader intimacy that's hard to achieve at any stage, let alone in a first book. The poems about childhood and adolescence are among the most powerful I've ever read. Tough, sexy, probing, tender, devoid of sentimentality, fiercely intelligent, and always a step ahead of the reader, She'd Waited Millennia is an important debut. --Chase Twichell Susanna Childress writes at the cutting edge of the long tradition of love poetry. Her poems often involve tense negotiations between a sharp cultural intelligence and a body that craves its fulfillment. She writes with grace about love and lust, and she unfailingly delivers rhythmic and linguistic pleasures to her lucky readers as they follow the course of these inquisitive, unpredictable poems. --Billy Collins Smart, nuanced, lush in their beauty, yetnever unaware of beauty's price, the poems in Mule & Pear meditate on what to do with the ghosts of history by which, as if inevitably, we find ourselves now shaped, now cornered, and now inhabited-each of us, then, an unwitting vessel made to carry the past forward. Griffiths is a master at capturing persona, and uses that gift, especially, to consider the notion of heritage-how much is inherited, how much is imposed? How much of what we believe is what we're told is true? The ambition of these poems dazzles, as does indeed their  achievement.--Carl Phillips Our titles are available online through Amazon.com and spdbooks.org.

New Issues Event Sunday, August 28

New Issues Poetry & Prose SUMMER 2011

In This Issue About Us 2011 New Issues Poetry Prize Book of the Year Award About Us New Issues was established in 1996 by poet Herbert S. Scott.    Winner of the 2011 New Issues Poetry Prize Andrew Allport has won the 2011 New Issues Poetry Prize for his manuscript the body | of space | in the shape of the human. David Wojahn, author of World Tree, judged. Andrew wins a $2,000 award and publication of his manuscript in the spring of 2012

Dear Friends, Can you believe it's been 15 years? By the end of this year New Issues will have published 135 books, and we couldn't have done it without you. Come celebrate this anniversary, and help us show appreciation for all of the hard work and dedication put forth by our departing Managing Editor, Marianne Swierenga. The event will take place at Bell's Brewery, 355 E. Kalamazoo Ave. on Sunday, August 28 from 2:30 pm-5:00pm. We'll feature readings by novelists Jaimy Gordon & Bonnie Jo Campbell, and poets Susanna Childress & Lizzie Hutton. A $5.00 donation will be requested; as a non-profit we greatly appreciate your generosity! Sincerely, Kimberly Kolbe New Issues Poetry & Prose Fall releases from New Issues by Susanna Childress andLizzie Hutton will be available for pre-order. Susanna Childress writes at the cutting edge of the long tradition of love poetry. Her poems often involve tense negotiations between a sharp cultural intelligence and a body that craves its fulfillment. She writes with grace about love and lust, and she unfailingly delivers rhythmic and linguistic pleasures to her lucky readers as they follow the course of these inquisitive, unpredictable poems. --Billy Collins Here's a poet whose intelligence and imagination value truth above any of its enemies: comfort, decoration, lovely music, the blurring of the line between the personal and the human. The poems feel emotionally and intellectually spontaneous, as if we were present at their coming-into-being, a genuine writer-reader intimacy that's hard to achieve at any stage, let alone in a first book. The poems about childhood and adolescence are among the most powerful I've ever read. Tough, sexy, probing, tender, devoid of sentimentality, fiercely intelligent, and always a step ahead of the reader, She'd Waited Millennia is an important debut. --Chase Twichell Translation by Jaimy Gordon It's not just a dog's life-it's a pig-cow-rat's life. In this deftly executed allegorical novel, Beig (Lost Weddings) gives an episodic, animal-centered account of the life of a young woman in rural Germany between the two world wars. Brief chapters-"Horse," "Cat," "Pig," etc.-recount the protagonist's less-than-idyllic encounters with the natural world. At birth, Hermine resembles a mutant horse; at school, she finds herself unable to write the assigned essay "Hurray, We're Slaughtering!" As a young teacher, she inadvertently causes the injury of a pupil during a spirited game based on a bear hunt, and she maims a badger with her motorbike. Disowned by her family for killing their pet goose, she is even scolded by her husband: "No one can have an animal with you around." Granted, "some days Hermine liked well enough," but most days she loses her battle with the bestiary. . . .This earthy, unsentimental novel is the perfect holiday gift for nihilists with a sense of humor. --Publisher's Weekly It would be too bad if, because of Campbell's realistic style and ferocious attention to her setting, "Once Upon a River" were discounted as merely a fine example of American regionalism. It is, rather, an excellent American parable about the consequences of our favorite ideal, freedom. --Jane Smiley, The New York Times  Our titles are available online through Amazon.com and spdbooks.org.

New Issues Poets and Staff Win Awards

Congratulations to these New Issues poets on awards for their new works:


Diane Seuss, Cultural Center of Cape Code Poetry Competition
Katie Peterson, Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant
Heather Sellers, Friends of American Writers Literary Award
Goldie Goldbloom, Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award
AND ForeWord Review's Gold Medal in Literary Fiction
Paul Guest, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship
Jennifer Perrine, University of Utah Press' Agha Shahid Ali Prize in Poetry

And:

Congrats to New Issues' staffers, Natalie Giarratano & Jonathan Rice for their inclusion in Best New Poets!
http://bestnewpoets.blogspot.com/2011/08/best-new-poets-2011-final-fifty.html

Last year's event was a success thanks to your support!

Dear colleagues:

I'm happy to announce that New Issues Press will hold its third fundraiser/ party at Bell's Brewery August 28, 2:30-5. We will be celebrating the 15th anniversary of the press. We'll also be showing our gratitude to Marianne Swierenga, who has stepped down as Managing Editor. Readers will include upcoming New Issues authors Susanna Childress and Lizzie Hutton, with special guest Jaimy Gordon. The reading will last 45-50 minutes.

Please mark the date of this auspicious occasion! We look forward to seeing you and bringing in the new school year with good cheer and good writing.

All best,
Bill Olsen

Toads' Museum of Freaks and Wonders Wins Gold

Goldie Goldbloom's novel Toads' Museum of Freaks and Wonders (New Issues, 2010) has won the gold from ForeWord Reviews.

Winners of the Book of the Year Award from ForeWord Reviews represent the best independently published books from 2010 and were selected by a panel of librarian and bookseller judges.

Book of the Year 2010 Winners in Fiction - Literary Category

* Gold: Toads' Museum of Freaks and Wonders by Goldie Goldbloom
* Silver: Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon
* Bronze: John Doe No. 2 and the Dreamland Motel by Kenneth Womack
* Honorable Mention: Journey to Virginland: Epistle I by Armen Melikian