BOA Blog

On Dec 6, 2010 the New Yorker published a list of the “Eleven Best Poetry Books of 2010” compiled by Dan Chiasson. We are thrilled to say that Cradle Book by Craig Morgan Teicher made the list! Chiasson calls it, “A touching book of fables and fairy tales you could read to a child, saturated with Teicher’s unusually gentle and weird imagination. I’m counting these as ‘prose poems’ mainly to get them on this list.” It's worth noting that BOA started our fiction series with the intention of focusing on collections that fall between the gaps of fiction and poetry. Cradle Book...

Kryssa Schemmerling reviews Jeanne Marie Beaumont's new collection, Burning of the Three Fires, in the current issue of BigCityLit. Does she like it?  "Dolls, brides, fairytale heroines, and anorexics all make appearances, as Beaumont offers multiple views of womanhood from a variety of angles. Rather than overwhelming us with personal information, the poet dons various masks, peeking out from behind them to offer measured, tantalizing glimpses of what we imagine to be her inner state." Read the whole review here [BigCityLit review of Burning of the Three Fires] [caption id="attachment_1137" align="aligncenter" width="265" caption="Jeanne Marie Beaumont. BOA poet."][/caption]

Come join us for BOA's Holiday Gala celebration on Friday, December 3! We will be eating, drinking, and having a grand ole time watching Rochester's own FuturPointe Dance company's interpretation of "The City In Which I Love You" by Li-Young Lee. FuturPointe's performances are extremely creative and their members come from all over the world. The company is known for fusing various genres and training, mixing modern and folk dance to Caribbean, African, Latin, and ballet, as well as for its aesthetic collaborations with visual artists and musicians. But for our party, the group will be performing a dance exclusively choreographed to the title poem from...

We are thrilled to announce that no fewer than 4 BOA authors have been awarded 2011 NEA Poetry Fellowships! Those authors are: Richard Foerster Aracelis Girmay Christopher Kennedy Cecilia Woloch Congratulations to our authors and all the other poets who received fellowships. The complete list is available here: 2011 NEA Poetry Fellowships BOA has also received a $30,000 NEA Access to Artistic Excellence award to support the production, publication, and related expenses for new volumes of poetry and short fiction. Scheduled authors include Naomi Shihab Nye, G. C. Waldrep, John Gallaher, Christopher Kennedy, Michael Waters, Janice N. Harrington, Ira Sadoff, and Adam...

Congratulations to BOA poet Sharon Bryan for having her collection Sharp Stars nominated for the distinguished Poet's Prize. The Poet's Prize is awarded by a panel of fellow poets in honor of the "best book of poems published in 2009." This isn't the first award recognition for Sharp Stars either. The book was given the Isabella Gardner Poetry Award for 2009. The Gardner Award is given biennially to a poet in mid-career whose manuscript is of exceptional merit.  Adam Zagajewski says of the book: "Sharon Bryan is a poet who contemplates radical questions and situations.  Her beautiful astonishment vis-a-vis the universe knows...