BOA Blog

Booklist is also paying attention to Geffrey Davis' new collection Revising the Storm, calling it a "wonderfully complex and entertaining debut." Much of Revising the Storm centers on family. "Thematically, Davis hits some strong subjects: missing fathers, marriage and divorce, early years and rebirth, all painful twists of reality and even sentimentality that make families too close for comfort yet often beyond reach ... Davis' poems are sweeping, lyrical glimpses into masculinity, violence, drug use, and history." Instead of escaping them, Davis is able to revise these subjects and experiences into something strikingly beautiful. According to the review, Davis is...

According to a new Booklist review, Lee Upton's The Tao of Humiliation is an "entertaining collection," which will "appeal to fans of a variety of literary authors, such as Grace Paley, Edith Pearlman, and Lewis Nordan." That's high and rightful praise. In this 17-story collection of irony, mourning, humor, and satire, "Upton, award-winning poet and literary critic, shows her mastery of the short form." Abundant with "fascinating characters who confront and confound readers," Upton creates a similarly wide variety of situations -- loss, insight, betrayal, and, of course, humiliation -- with a "lightness of touch." "She draws her unforgettable characters with...

In a recent weekend feature for The Journal, reviewer Sonja James calls Sohrab Sepehri "one of Iran's most widely respected poets from the 20th century." Sepehri's The Oasis of Now is translated from the Persian by Kazim Ali and Mohammad Jafar Mahallati. "As translators, Ali and Mahallati have rendered an exquisite collection that captures not only Sepehri's love of nature but his constant struggle with the theme of the loneliness of the poet making his way through the world." The review notes Sepehri's emphasis on loneliness as "the fate of the poet," an inherent element of the poet's journey. In...

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is calling Jim Daniels' new collection Birth Marks "the essential handbook into the goings-on in author Jim Daniels' life ... Between dark humor and unwholesome love, the poet gives us an unblinking view of the alcoholism in his family, the struggles of the working class and the shame he has felt surrounding it all." Reviewer Daeja Baker writes, "Mr. Daniels is trying to find himself in this mess of Michigan memories, searching his own adolescence, crouching in the 'sin pits' of his past, longing for his words to fill him with the 'familiar Detroit way' once again."...

Librarian turned author and creative writing professor, Janice Harrington was recently featured by The News-Gazette of Central Illinois with a fun Q&A: "A few of my favorite things: Janice Harrington." Harrington, the author of BOA titles The Hands of Strangers: Poems from the Nursing Home (2011), and Even the Hollow My Body Made Has Gone (2007), "is known for her elegant poems on serious topics, which have been featured in America's leading journals ... [She] added to her lengthy list of honors recently, when the Illinois Reading Council chose her new children's book for its 2014 'Illinois Reads' initiative." Here's...