New Issues Poetry & Prose

Voted #1 by readers of the Huffington Post 15 Feisty Small Presses

New Issues Poetry & Prose was established in 1996 by poet Herbert S. Scott. New Issues publishes eight to twelve new titles each year with a focus on contemporary poetry, and literary fiction, through the AWP Award Series in the Novel. New Issues Press’ offices are housed in the Ernest Wilbur Building on the Oakland Campus of Western Michigan University.

"The mainstream publishing houses can’t begin to represent all of the best emerging poetry and literary fiction. Our press looks to find voices uncategorized by pressures of prestige or expectation. There is no other way except through small presses for these voices to be heard and to endure in their initial splendor." William Olsen, Editor

New Issues awards two poetry prizes, each offering a $2,000 award and publication:

• The New Issues Poetry Prize is an award given to a first book of poems. Brenda Hillman, Chase Twichell, Philip Levine, C.D. Wright, and Marvin Bell have previously judged the competition.
• The Green Rose Prize is an award given to a collection of poems by a poet who has previously published one or more volumes of poetry.

New Issues has received generous support from Western Michigan University, anonymous donors, and through grants from the Eric Mathieu King Fund and the Greenwall Fund of The Academy of American Poets; and from the Pharmacia and Upjohn Foundation, the Fetzer Institute, and the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo. Grants from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs and from the National Endowment for the Arts have supported the publication of many of New Issues’ poetry books and works of fiction.

New Issues titles are designed by senior graphic design students, under the supervision of Tricia Hennessy and Paul Sizer, in The Design Center, Frostic School of Art, Western Michigan University.