BOA Blog

Late in 2013, Janice Harrington was honored by CBS Chicago as one of five "Best Local Poets." Dubbed a "compelling poet" and an "accomplished writer" by CBS Chicago, Harrington's BOA collections Even the Hollow my Body Made is Gone and The Hands of Strangers are called "vividly haunting portrayals of distant memories lost, but not forgotten." The Hands of Strangers made another recent media appearance, this time in a piece by Tim Mullaney of McKnight's Long-Term Care News--not your typical literary review. Though admittedly not a poetry aficionado, Mullaney was intrigued by the collection after Harrington's CBS Chicago feature, and...

Fifty-eight short "histories" in Aurelie Sheehan's Jewelry Box make up the memoir-like collection that holds within it pieces of gold. In a recent Trop review, reviewer Erica Blumenson-Cook looks deep into Sheehan's "histories" and how they relate to memory. "What I discovered was something like finding a box of trinkets and photographs at a stranger's yard sale or attic. There is no way to know if these bits of jewelry, knick-knacks, photographs, letters, and postcards all belonged to one person, or if they all just somehow ended up in the same box. You wonder how they got there and what...

In a recent Newpages review of Jim Daniels' new collection Birth Marks, reviewer Kelly M. Sylvester focuses attention on the people inhabiting the poems: "students trying to get away with plagiarism or trying to commit suicide, an addict nephew, and a drunk-thief-TV repairman." According to the Sylvester, "Daniels applies overt wit throughout his poems about the various characters and the backdrops they inhabit, especially when the narrator is commenting on his own experiences." Daniels' collection focuses on the urban landscape and its effects on its inhabitants as they struggle to establish community. The way he does this, however, is entirely...

In its new January/February issue, World Literature Today (WLT) placed recent translation Light and Heavy Things on its list of "Nota Benes." WLT calls the Pakistani collection "remarkable in its combination of simplicity and achingly beautiful imagery." Light and Heavy Things carries poems by Zeeshan Sahil, translated by Christopher Kennedy, Mi Ditmar, and Faisal Siddiqui. "War and poor health besieged the Pakistani poet Zeeshan Sahil (1961–2008), but his spirit continues to shine brightly through these poems, illuminating a path of steadfast hope and affirmation of life." See WLT's full list of Nota Bene honorees, here. Visit the BOA Bookstore to...

According to a recent Rain Taxi review, in which Hugh Martin is likened to Brian Turner (Here, Bullet), "The Stick Soldiers deserves a wide audience. It has much to tell us about the cost of war on our veterans." Reviewer John Bradley notes Martin's ability to speak to his audience with weight. "'They lip-sync / through cigarettes, blow breaths of smoke at the sky, / hold their loaded Kalishnikovs / against their bodies, a hand on the butt, / a hand on the muzzle, and their feet shuffle, / their heads roll in slow circles; / they follow the rifle's...