BOA Blog

On September 18, 2011 BOA held our annual Dine & Rhyme celebration at the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, NY. Those who were fortunate enough to attend were treated to an astonishing, wide-ranging poetry reading by BOA poets Keetje Kuipers, Aracelis Girmay, and Michael Waters. We're pleased to announce that those readings in the entirety are now posted on BOA's YouTube page:  2011 Dine & Rhyme videos  Whether your re-living that magical night or seeing it for the first time, these are share-worthy videos of three diverse and dynamic poets. Enjoy! [caption id="attachment_1485" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Keetje Kuipers unwinding after her...

Mike Walker of Coal Hill Review argues that while the subject matter of Naomi Shihab Nye’s Transfer is a common topic of discussion, Nye somehow manages to make her collection of poems the most intimate conversation in the room. In Transfer, Nye draws on her Palestinian-American heritage without ever getting swallowed up by the current state of politics, or even just our expectations of the Middle East as Americans. Walker explains that as Americans, we are fully aware of the Middle East and the questions at hand, “but too often we get the same images over and over again, and...

This year, the National Endowment for the Arts awarded Creative Writing Fellowships in poetry. We're proud to say that four BOA authors were included among the 2011 recipients; Richard Foerster, Aracelis Girmay, Christopher Kennedy, and Celcilia Woloch. The National Endowment for the Arts was established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. To date, the NEA has awarded more than $4 billion to support artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation for the benefit of individuals and communities. The NEA extends its work through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic...

Here's another BOA blast from the not-so-past! In case you're just jumping on board now, starting this fall BOA will be featuring previously published titles on the blog. At the beginning of every month we'll feature a new title that BOA has published in the past, and offer you the opportunity to take a look at where BOA's been in addition to where we are now and where we're going. The BOA Classic for this month is Dorianne Laux's collection of poetry, Smoke, originally published in 2000. It is a gripping collection of life, love, and loss. Each poem in...

There will be an open submission period for the Lannan Translations Series from October 1-October 31, 2011. We ask that you read and follow the guidelines provided on our website before submitting: [Lannan Translations Series] The Lannan Foundation of Santa Fe, New Mexico annually funds two new collections of contemporary international poetry published by BOA Editions.  The funds support production costs and author and translator royalties. We think of Lannan as the quiet heroes of the contemporary literary scene for their support of poetry and the art of translation. They also house some of the best audio and video literary archives available on-line. Find out more...