BOA Blog

In the company of The King James Bible and The Collected Works of William Shakespeare, Kyle Minor of the Big Other places The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010 on his list of the top 50 "Literary Pillars" of all time. The landmark volume (available now in the BOA Bookstore!) is ranked number 18. Considering that the list ends at 50, Minor sings (or rather, writes) the praises of Ms. Clifton in a big way, placing her collection among top twenty-five, above such writers as Ezra Pound and Kurt Vonnegut. Such an august presence suggests that Ms. Clifton has not...

Here at BOA we're prone to talking about the "BOA family" of poets, supporters, board, staff and loyal readers. That's not just blowing smoke either! For many of us, BOA does indeed feel like a big family of kindred spirits. Those ties can show themselves in many ways and they're always heartening to see... especially when poets in the BOA family find inspiration from their "poetic siblings." The most recent example of this familial feel can be found in new BOA poet Fleda Brown's discussion of longtime BOA poet Michael Waters' newest collection, Gospel Night. Fleda discussed - and read...

"On our first raid in Iraq, I bounded up a long staircase, turned a corner and found myself face to face with a young Iraqi woman cradling an infant. I nearly knocked her over, and she leaned hard against the wall to let me pass. A black abaya covered her entire body, and a white scarf concealed her head, only revealing part of her face: shaking lips, small nose, her eyes wide and white in the dark. The infant, wrapped in a blue shawl, was asleep. After lowering my rifle, I backed away, and ran onto the roof where the...

A zealous review for Bruce Beasley’s Theophobia (BOA, 2012)! In a Starred Review by Publishers Weekly this week, Bruce Beasley's newest collection Theophobia (now available at the BOA Bookstore) was highly praised, with claims that the book “outdoes his five prior collections with this spiky, thoughtful, elaborate, sometimes scary, sometimes funny set of verse essays, riffs, and meditations.” Theophobia, the latest of Beasley's postmodern spiritual devotions, is structured around the poetry series, "Pilgrim's Deviations."  PW notes that Beasley “wants answers, from divinity or from DNA, even if he believes that he will not get them, and so his variable, friable,...

While BOA's fall 2012 titles aren't scheduled for official release until 1-3 months from now, BOA just received a thrilling shipment yesterday of the final three titles of the season: Theophobia, Passwords Primeval: 20 American Poets in their Own Words, and Diadem: Selected Poems! Do you know what that means? You can go to the BOA Bookstore TODAY to claim your copies of any and all of the long-awaited fall 2012 titles, including The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010 and To Keep Love Blurry!  Each of the titles are absolutely breathtaking, and we at BOA are so proud to...