FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 6, 2009
Contact: Laura Byerley
(816) 235-1592; byerleyl@umkc.edu

New Letters magazine receives three national awards

   KANSAS CITY, MO. –Three works published in New Letters – the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s (UMKC) international magazine of writing and art – have been chosen to appear in “The Pushcart Prize XXXIV, Best of the Small Presses (2010).”
            “The Pushcart Prize – Best of the Small Presses” series has been published every year since 1976.  Each year, writers and editors across the country nominate thousands of short fiction stories, poems and essays to receive Pushcart Prizes.  Of those, about 60 are selected for Pushcart Prizes.
            “Two Studies in Entropy” – a fiction work by Sara Pritchard; “How to Succeed in Po Biz” – an essay by Kim Addonizio; and “In Africa” – a fiction work by Edward Hoagland received Pushcart Prizes after appearing in New Letters.
            “For a single publication to be selected for three Pushcart Prizes in one year is nearly unheard of,” said Robert Stewart, Editor of New Letters.  “This shows that New Letters remains – in its 75th year – on the front line of national magazines that publish literature.  I am especially gratified that recent honors for New Letters have come from diverse sources, ranging from the 2008 National Magazine Award, with its more commercial component, to The Pushcart Prize, with its emphasis on literary writers and editors.”
            Writers who were first noticed through Pushcart Prizes include Raymond Carver, Tim O’Brien, Jayne Anne Phillips, Charles Baxter, Andre Dubus, Susan Minot, Mona Simpson, John Irving and Rick Moody.
            Subscriptions to New Letters are $36 for two years and $22 for one year.  Call (816) 235-1168 or visit www.newletters.org to join the New Letters family of subscribers.    
            The University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC), one of four University of Missouri campuses, is a public university serving more than 14,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional students.  UMKC engages with the community and economy based on a four-part mission: life and health sciences; visual and performing arts; urban issues and education; and a vibrant learning and campus life experience.

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