BOA Blog

Recently, Coal Hill Review contributor John Samuel Tieman offered a thoughtful, philosophical response to Sean Thomas Dougherty's Sasha Sings the Laundry on the Line. Tieman describes Dougherty as "a landscape artist...like Studs Terkel walking along Division Street in Chicago, describing immigrants and drug addicts, the denizens and detritus of urban America." He also lauds Dougherty's ability to fluxuate between "epistolary description" and "prose riffs" seamlessly. Tieman engages Sasha Sings the Laundry on the Line in a deeply personal and philosophical inquiry, even in the space of such a small review. As a result, the tone is curious and reverent, and...

Barbara Jane Reyes's Diwata continues to attract attention for poems whose lines are "lyrical and mystical in their rhythm."  In Galatea Resurrects, G. Justin Hulog's perceptive review explores the mythological concerns of Diwata, placing into context the cultural and historical implications of Barbara's poems: "In her poetic musings, we see the concerns of the Filipino diaspora brought to life: the desire to reclaim our pre-colonial past, the lament of colonialism, the search for an “authentic” voice, the terror of rape and war, the universal struggle to translate ourselves and, perhaps most importantly, our capacity to dream." G. Justin Hulong boldly...

Your Father on the Train of Ghosts was recently reviewed by Joshua Diamond of the Sycamore Review.  Diamond says that John Gallaher and G.C. Waldrep are ahead of the curve in a year of American poetry he names, "The Year of the Ghost."  He comments on the collection's ability to "navigate" readers to a familiar place by referencing automated towns, parental figures, and even a Spencer Tracy film. Calling Your Father on the Train of Ghosts "not a typical collaboration," Diamond writes, "It is also not a G.C. Waldrep or a John Gallaher book; rather a hybrid speaker emerges wearing Waldrep's hat and Gallaher's sneakers." Read...

Don't miss out on your chance to participate in Matthew Shenoda's master class on the poetry of travel this Friday at Midtown Athletic Club in Rochester. The third installment of Writing Exercises — BOA Edition’s popular new writing workshop series — Shenoda’s class will inspire participants to draw upon their own travel experiences to capture on the page adventures experienced in distant and not-so-distant lands. Great travel writing can be almost as fun as traveling. Through prose and poetry, we can experience new places, meet people, and gain a deeper understanding of our world. American Book Award-winning BOA-poet Matthew Shenoda...

This year BOA Editions celebrate 35 years as a publisher. In 2007, we began publishing fiction in our American Readers Series and have had the pleasure of bringing to the world the work of authors such as Anne Germanacos, Craig Morgan Teicher,  Joanna Howard and Jessica Treat. The fantastic range of work by these authors have been a welcome addition to the body of writing we have published. To commemorate the milestone of our 35 years, we are inaugurating our 1st annual Short Fiction Contest. The winner will have their collection of short stories published in our American Reader Series...