BOA Blog

Riffle World Literature's Gina Rodriguez recently sat down with Kazim Ali, co-translator of The Oasis of Now (BOA, 2013), to discuss his thoughts on the new Iranian translation. Here's a nice sample of questions and answers that bring you closer to the exceptional book and its backstory: How did you first discover Sohrab Sepehri’s work? My father had been working in Iran and he brought back several books of poetry by Iranian writers. I was dissatisfied with the translation, though the beauty of the poetry enamored me. It was many more years before I met Jafar Mahallati, who worked with me...

Barton Sutter's The Reindeer Camps (BOA, 2012) is featured in Saga 4 of award-winning Swedish filmmaker Stefan Quinth’s Pretty Much 100% Scandinavian, a series of documentaries about Scandinavian-Americans living in the American Midwest. The film, co-produced with Dr. William Beyer, reveals how the Scandinavian heritage is still very present in the lives of its descendants. Saga 4, which focuses on Scandinavian-American artists and craftspeople, features Sutter's reading of three poems from The Reindeer Camps: "Swedish Lesson," "Whistle Dance," and "Not Sleeping at Bill Holm's House." This latest installment premiered at the American Swedish Institute in October. "The descendants of U.S. immigrants from...

A new Booklist review says Michael Teig's There's a Box in the Garage You Can Beat with a Stick (BOA, 2013) is "brimming with wit." The collection "has one of the boldest titles in poetry-book history, and he follows his standout title with highly imaginative poems boasting imagery with passionate reach." "Nearly every poem in this collection can be viewed as a picturesque mural that doesn't quite make sense, yet, curiously, leads to wonder and excitement. It is quite possible that Teig has inherited the mantle of William Carlos Williamsons' 'Red Wheelbarrow.' But there is nothing here that is definitive,...

A recent Three Guys One Book review of Aurelie Sheehan's new Jewelry Box (BOA, 2013) deems it a grand collection of "histories." Sheehan's 58 stories, each titled after a different object, offer readers a completely new point-of-view with every turn of the page. According to reviewer Benjamin Rybeck, "The effect of this book is dizzying. Reading it, I felt as though I had stepped into a room with 58 strangers and asked each of them to relay something personal. As a result, shards of these "histories" have lodged themselves in my mind, even if I have difficulty remembering the exact...

According to War Literature & the Arts reviewer M. K. Sukach, a member of the United States Air Force Academy, The Stick Soldiers (BOA, 2013) "reveal[s] Iraq in all its real and imagined dangers in a language that is somber, angry, deeply reflective, but also intensely, if not darkly humorous." The collection is an "approachable, necessary volume of poems about what it was like to prepare for war, serve in Iraq, and return to Ohio 'a body / much less / without the plated-vest, the ammo.'" Calling Hugh Martin "a keenly observant, thoughtful poet who makes purposeful choices," the review...