New Issues Press is a literary press associated with Western Michigan University

Western Michigan University

Western Michigan University is a public university located in Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States. The university was established in 1903 by Dwight B. Waldo, and as of the Fall 2010 semester, its enrollment is 25,045....

. It was founded by poet and Western Michigan University professor Herbert S. Scott

Herbert S. Scott

Herbert S. Scott was an American poet and founding editor of the literary New Issues Press, which he started in 1996. Scott's poems appeared widely in literary journals and anthologies...

. The current editor is William Olsen

William Olsen

William Olsen is an American poet.Italic text-Life:He was raised in Park Forest, Illinois.His poems and essays have appeared in "Chicago Review, "Crazyhorse", "Gettysburg Review", "The Kenyon Review", "The Nation", The New Republic, Paris Review, "Poetry", "Poetry Northwest", Southern Review, ...

.

The Huffington Post

The Huffington Post

The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...

 has called New Issues Press one of fifteen small presses in the United States that "exemplify the best qualities of [the American] publishing tradition." After a two-week vote, Huffington Post

The Huffington Post

The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...

 readers named New Issues number one in the country among the fifteen small presses cited.

The press publishes predominantly poetry, along with some fiction titles, including the AWP Award Series in the Novel

Association of Writers & Writing Programs

The Association of Writers & Writing Programs is a literary organization whose mission is "to foster literary talent and achievement, to advance the art of writing as essential to a good education, and to serve the makers, teachers, students, and readers of contemporary writing."-Members:AWP...

. The press awards two poetry prizes each year, The New Issues Poetry Prize for a first book, and The Green Rose Prize for established poets.

Winners of The New Issues Poetry Prize include Paul Guest

Paul Guest

Paul Guest is an American poet and memoirist.When he was twelve, Paul broke the third and fourth vertebrae in his neck in a bicycle accident, bruising his spinal cord and paralyzing him from the neck down. He is a quadriplegic. He graduated from University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and from...

, Sandra Beasley

Sandra Beasley

Sandra Beasley is an American poet and non-fiction writer.-Background:Beasley graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, earned a B.A. in English magna cum laude from the University of Virginia, and later received an MFA degree from American University...

, Jason Bredle

Jason Bredle

Jason Bredle is an American poet. Born in Indianapolis, he received degrees in English and Spanish from Indiana University and an MFA from the University of Michigan, where he was the recipient of a Hopwood Award...

, Matthew Thorburn

Matthew Thorburn

Matthew Thorburn is an American poet. He is the author of three books of poems, Subject to Change and two forthcoming collections, Every Possible Blue and This Time Tomorrow , and a chapbook, the long poem Disappears in the Rain .-Life:He is a native of Michigan...

, Bradley Paul

Bradley Paul

Bradley Ormond Paul is an American poet.He graduated from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop....

, Malena Mörling

Malena Mörling

Malena Mörling, born 1965, is a Swedish poet and Assistant Professor. She is the author of two books of poetry, Ocean Avenue, which won the New Issues Press Poetry Prize in 1998 and Astoria, published by Pittsburgh Press in 2006...

, Heidi Lynn Staples

Heidi Lynn Staples

Heidi Lynn Staples is the author of two published collections of poetry, Guess Can Gallop and Dog Girl . Her poetry has appeared in the Best American Poetry, Chicago Review, Denver Quarterly, Ploughshares, Women's Studies Quarterly, and elsewhere...

, Louise Mathias, Marsha de la O, and Cynie Cory. Winners of The Green Rose Prize include Corey Marks

Corey Marks

-Biography:Corey Marks holds a Ph.D. in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Houston, an MFA from the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College, and a BA in English from Kalamazoo College...

, Noah Eli Gordon

Noah Eli Gordon

Noah Eli Gordon is an American poet. Gordon was educated at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He currently teaches at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Gordon currently writes the chapbook review column for the book review publication Rain Taxi...

, Seth Abramson

Seth Abramson

Seth Abramson is an American poet, attorney, editor, and freelance journalist.-Life:Abramson is a graduate of Dartmouth College, Harvard Law School, and the Iowa Writers' Workshop...

, Joan Houlihan

Joan Houlihan

Joan Houlihan is an American poet. She is the author of three books, most recently The Us , and The Mending Worm , winner of the 2005 Green Rose Prize in Poetry...

, Christine Hume

Christine Hume

-Life:Hume received her BA, MFA, and PhD from Penn State University, Columbia University, and University of Denver, respectively. She has taught at Illinois Wesleyan University and is currently an Associate Professor of English at Eastern Michigan University, where she also hosts an internet radio...

, Martha Rhodes

Martha Rhodes

Martha Rhodes is an American poet, teacher, and publisher. She is author of four poetry collections, most recently The Beds and Mother Quiet...

, Hugh Seidman

Hugh Seidman

-Life:He has taught writing at the University of Wisconsin, Yale University, Columbia University, the College of William and Mary, The New School.His work appeared in The Brooklyn Rail, Harper's, The Paris Review, Virginia Quarterly Review....

, Ruth Ellen Kocher

Ruth Ellen Kocher

Ruth Ellen Kocher is an American poet.-Life:She grew up in a housing project near the Susquehanna River. She earned her B.A. from Pennsylvania State University in 1990, her MFA from Arizona State University in 1994, and her Ph.D. from Arizona State University in 1999...

 and Christopher Bursk

Christopher Bursk

Christopher Bursk is an American poet, professor, and activist. He is author of nine poetry collections, most recently, The First Inhabitants of Arcadia published by the , and praised by The New York Times: Bursk writes with verve and insight about child rearing, aging parents, sexuality, his...

.

The press has also published a number of prominent Michigan poets through its Inland Seas Poetry Series, including Jim Daniels

Jim Daniels

James Raymond Daniels is an American poet and writer.Since 1981, Daniels has been on the faculty of the creative writing program at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he is the Thomas Stockham Baker Professor of English.He won the inaugural Brittingham Prize in Poetry in...

, David Dodd Lee

David Dodd Lee

David Dodd Lee is an American poet. Lee is the author of six books of poems, Downsides of Fish Culture , Arrow Pointing North , Abrupt Rural , "The Nervous Filaments" "Orphan, Indiana" and "Sky Booths in the Breath Somewhere: The Ashbery...

, Anthony Butts

Anthony Butts

-Life:He graduated from Wayne State University with a bachelors degree, from Western Michigan University, with an MFA, and University of Missouri with a PhD.He taught at the University of Dayton.He teaches at Carnegie Mellon University....

, Lee Upton

Lee Upton

Lee Upton is an American poet, fiction writer, literary critic, and a graduate of the MFA Program for Poets & Writers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.-Life:...

, John Rybicki, and Mary Ann Samyn. Other notable poets published by New Issues Press include Michael Burkard

Michael Burkard

-Life:He graduated from Hobart College and from the Iowa Writers' Workshop with an MFA in 1973. He taught at Kirkland College and Sarah Lawrence College , and has taught in the M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing at Syracuse University since 1997...

, Khaled Mattawa

Khaled Mattawa

Khaled Mattawa is a Libyan poet, and a renowned Arab-American writer, he is also a leading literary translator, focusing on translating Arabic poetry into English...

, Claudia Keelan

Claudia Keelan

-Life:Keelan, who was born in Anaheim, California, is a graduate of Humboldt State University and the Iowa Writers' Workshop. She is the author of five collections of poetry, most recently Missing Her , and has published poems widely in magazines and journals, including The American Poetry Review,...

, Lisa Lewis

Lisa Lewis

Lisa Lewis is an American poet, who was recently awarded a 2011 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Poetry.-Life:She graduated from University of Houston, with a PhD.She teaches at Oklahoma State University.-Awards:...

, Brian Henry

Brian Henry

Brian Henry is an American poet, translator, editor, and literary critic. He lives in Richmond, Virginia.-Education:Henry completed a BA at the College of William and Mary and an MFA Program for Poets & Writers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst....

, Jericho Brown

Jericho Brown

Jericho Brown is an American poet who was recently awarded a 2011 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Poetry.-Life:He graduated from Dillard University, and from the University of New Orleans with an MFA, and from the University of Houston with a Ph.D. He teaches at the University of...

, Sarah Messer

Sarah Messer

Sarah Messer is an American poet and author. She was raised in Marshfield, Massachusetts, in the Hatch Homestead, a house built in the 17th century that was the subject of her book Red House: Being a Mostly Accurate Account of New England's Oldest Continuously Lived-In House.Messer earned...

, Jon Pineda

Jon Pineda

-Life:He was raised in Chesapeake, Virginia.He graduated from James Madison University and Virginia Commonwealth University. He currently teaches at Old Dominion University, and Queens University of Charlotte....

, Donald Platt

Donald Platt (poet)

Donald Platt is a poet and professor of English at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. Recently, he was awarded a 2011 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Poetry.-Bibliography:...

, Rebecca Reynolds

Rebecca Reynolds

-Life:She grew up inWahsington D. C. She graduated from Vassar College, Rutgers University , and the University of Michigan . She taught at Baylor University...

, Martha Serpas

Martha Serpas

Martha Serpas is a contemporary American poet.Serpas grew up in Galliano, Louisiana, and received her BA from Louisiana State University. She subsequently did graduate study at New York University , Yale Divinity School , and the University of Houston . Serpas formerly taught at the University of...

, Gladys Cardiff

Gladys Cardiff

Gladys Cardiff is a poet and academic, with interests in Native American, African American and American literature. She is an associate professor at Oakland University....

, and Stacie Cassarino

Stacie Cassarino

Stacie Cassarino is an award-winning American poet and author of the collection Zero at the Bone. Born in Connecticut of Italian heritage, she is a graduate of Middlebury College where she subsequently taught in the English department, and University of Washington...

.

All New Issues titles are designed by senior graphic design students in the Frostic School of Art

Gwen Frostic

Gwen Frostic born as Sara Gwendolen Frostic, was an artist, author, and Michigan Women's Hall of Fame inductee.-Life:...

 at Western Michigan University

Western Michigan University

Western Michigan University is a public university located in Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States. The university was established in 1903 by Dwight B. Waldo, and as of the Fall 2010 semester, its enrollment is 25,045....

, under the supervision of Tricia Hennessy and Paul Sizer.

External links

• New Issues Press