Winner of the 2009 New Issues Poetry Prize Announced: Judy Halebsky

Judy Halebsky has won the 2009 New Issues Poetry Prize for her manuscript Sky=Empty. Marvin Bell, author of Mars Being Red, judged. Judy wins a $2,000 award and publication of her manuscript in the spring of 2010.

“I was caught by the clarity of mind and expression of Sky=Empty — a quality distinctive at any time. I was caught by the ear and eye, the tone of voice, and the easy movement between inner and outer. The respect for language is tangible. This is a beautiful, engaging first book, the sort of book one may buy a second copy of to give away.” —Marvin Bell, from the Judge’s Citation

Judy Halebsky is a member of the Sacramento Poetry Center’s Tuesday night workshop and has an M.F.A. from Mills College. Her poems have appeared in Runes, Five Fingers Review and Eleven Eleven. Residencies at the MacDowell Colony and the Millay Colony have supported her work. Originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia, she is currently in Japan studying noh theatre on a research scholarship from the Japanese Ministry of Education (MEXT).

Keith Ekiss’s manuscript Pima Road Notebook was named runner-up by the judge and will be published in the fall of 2010.

Ekiss is a former Wallace Stegner Fellow and the Jones Lecturer in Poetry at Stanford University for 2007-09. He is the past recipient of scholarships and residencies from the Bread Loaf and Squaw Valley Writers’ Conferences, Santa Fe Art Institute, Millay Colony for the Arts, and the Petrified Forest National Park. He is the Artistic Director of the Center for the Art of Translation in San Francisco.

More information about New Issues or the New Issues Poetry Prize can be found at www.wmich.edu/newissues.