BOA Blog

We are thrilled to announce that James R. Gapinski has been named 2026 Bronze Medalist by the IPPY Awards for their short story collection The Museum of Future Mistakes! Gapinski won the Bronze Medal under IPPY's Short Story Fiction category. To view the full list of medalists, click here.  This incredible accomplishment recognizes Gapinski's daring and inventive narrative style. Through fabulist and magical realist stories, The Museum of Future Mistakes considers our physical relationship with our own bodies, how we process love and loss, and the fragility of identity amid moments of personal crisis.  Praise for The Museum of Future...

Boa mourns the recent passing of James Long "Kip" Hale. A writer and longtime Boa supporter, Kip served as a founding member of Boa's National Advisory Committee and served in that capacity for many years. Our heartfelt sympathies go out to Kip's family and friends.

Boa is proud to present our roundup of book reviews from the Spring 2026 season thus far. Check out the reviews below to see what people are saying about Boa’s talented authors!     This Elegance by Derrick Austin “Get back to the word,” by Michael Colbert From the article: “This Elegance is a collection that’s full of life. With attention to dreams, tarot, and the places the mind travels, these poems contemplate divinity, eroticism, and a life lived through art across time.” “’Common as the Blues’: Queer Futurity and Pastoral Optimism in Derrick Austin’s This Elegance,” West Trade Review...

Coming into my internship experience at Boa Editions as a business student with no prior experience in publishing, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. But over the course of my time here, I learned not only about the industry, but about the work and care that goes into running a non-profit arts organization. Every day brought something new to learn; whether it was helping log prize submissions for upcoming collections or understanding the behind-the-scenes operations that keep this independent press moving forward. The office itself quickly became one of my favorite places, with the sound of the heat clinking...

I spent most of the first day reading Lucille Clifton’s At the Gate, a collection I would write about for this blog in one of my favorite intern tasks. As I sat there reading, scribbling notes in a little tan notebook, I felt a kind of thawing: I was reinvigorated by Clifton’s work, and reminded how much I really want, and might actually need, to read poetry to feel alive and immersed in the world.