BOA Blog

In his blog A Burning Patience, Lyle Daggett writes about Barbara Jane Reyes' newest book Diwata, a collection he calls "profoundly moving."  Citing various poems as "pure incantation," Daggett reflects on Reyes' abilty to connect mythology and reality with history and culture.  He states, "Running through the varying times and places in the poems, and the subtly shifting voices and perspectives, I feel a consistent essential thread of storytelling, bringing knowledge to light, knowledge often obscured by the fogs of long colonization (both beyond and within the borders of the empire) but not entirely lost."      Read the full post here A Burning Patience [caption id="attachment_977"...

In their Feb 21st issue, Publishers Weekly gives early attention to two forthcoming spring 2011 BOA poetry titles: Ennui Prophet, poems by Christopher Kennedy (published June 2011) “Hip and inviting, Kennedy’s short prose poems rarely fail to entertain: ‘I’ll buy you a reason to live if you promise to share,’ one says, while another visits the ‘Museum of Wrong Turns,’ finding ‘something for everyone: cowboy boots worn by former presidents,’ for example…Kennedy runs the graduate program in creative writing at Syracuse: this third book of prose poems (his fourth overall) shows his clear mastery of several prose-poem forms, with lyricism, jokiness,...

Photograph by Betsy Dougherty Keetje Kuipers, winner of the 2009 A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Award, discusses the origins of her poem “4th of July,” which appeared in her book Beautiful in the Mouth, for Brian Brodeur’s blog How a Poem Happens. In the interview, Keetje not only shares with readers the inspiration behind the poem but also insights into her own writing process: “Because I often write in my head as I'm driving or hiking, sound and musicality are very present and motivating factors as I compose. Because I also consider almost all of my work as coming out of the...

Poet Joe Weil shares with readers of the Best American Poetry blog his early personal experiences with poet Sean Thomas Dougherty, author of the recently released Sasha Sings the Laundry on the Line. Of Sean, he writes “I knew by his references, by his metaphors, and sound that he had read a great deal of poetry, that he had a far roaming yet accurate ear, and that these poems I was hearing out loud would deepen rather than disappear when I brought the book back with me to the mold making plant and read them at lunch break.”  Read more...

To celebrate this past Valentine’s Day, the editors and writers of Slate were asked to discuss their favorite love poems. Senior Editor Michael Agger selected the poem “Three Rivers” by Alpay Ulku from his book Meteorology; a poem that Michael says captured his attention from the first line.  You can read more of Michael Agger’s comments on the poem here:  http://www.slate.com/id/2284679/pagenum/all/#p2