Stories from BOA Readers: #BOATurns40

When I was younger it seemed that my parents and I learned English together. My mother used to read to me at night, but more accurately it was a partnership. My mother and I learned a lot of other things together, too: how to play the piano, how to work in a clinic, how to put together college apps—all through my life I have had a companion, and my earliest memories of this companionship begin when we were first learning the language that I would later make my own, as I am now a poet myself.Language, as I learned growing...

Reading a book in the Sierra back country—the book was Light by Eva Figes—a single day in the life of Monet—I was transported to Giverny, to Paris, to begin writing myself...

I learned English at a young age mostly through reading, by copying letter for letter each unfamiliar word in my marbled notebooks until they became mine, until I dreamed with them. As a non-native speaker, books were a safe way for me to encounter new worlds, intimate spaces in which to explore and connect without fear or judgement. In the most transformative reading experiences, the writing becomes akin to our own thoughts and reshapes our most personal spaces.

What I look for in a book is a recognition or confirmation of a truth that is within me. The author is able to express and illuminate a certain experience or emotion and completely draw me in and confirm my feelings and truths. So many books have changed my life that it's hard to pick one. The authors that are in my heart and I carry their words with me are Junot Diaz, Toni Morrison, Audre Lorde, Bhanu Kapil, Clarice Lispector, Aracelis Girmay, Ocean Vuong, etc.

Many years ago I went backpacking in northern Sweden—Lapland, really. Perhaps my memory is romanticizing the setting a bit, but there were herds of reindeer grazing the hillsides under the Northern Lights, and there was no one but me on the trail for miles. I had Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook with me to read. Sweden is considerate of hikers, so every few miles there was a hut where one could rest and sleep. I am a rather lazy camper and had no desire to prove how far I could hike in a day, so I spent hours curled in...