Recent Blog Posts
Poetry magazine's January 'Reading List'
Nguyen Phan Que Mai’s The Secret of Hoa Sen was chosen for Poetry magazine's "Reading List: January 2016."According to poet Lauren McClung, "Vietnamese poet Nguyen Phan Que Mai’s first collection in English, The Secret of Hoa Sen, translated by the poet and Vietnam War veteran Bruce Weigl, tells a woman’s story of her homeland—a place of immense beauty and generational trauma."McClung selected the book for the reading list because of the author's ability to discuss a vast array of emotions in a short amount of space, saying, “...this poet’s song is always both praise and elegy, gratitude and longing, and the landscape—whether earth...
BOA launches new website
Redesigned website provides new features, increased connection among literary community We are proud to announce the release of our newly redesigned website! Crafted to reflect visitors’ needs and provide an attractive, user-friendly experience, the new website features streamlined menus and improved functionality, simple site and bookstore navigation, and access to more and better information on BOA books, authors, and publishing news.Launched at the start of 2016—BOA’s 40th anniversary year—the overhauled website focuses on the organization’s unique brand and organizational mission, and hosts an array of new features including an interactive author events map, a fully-integrated online bookstore, a mobile-responsive version,...
ANTIDOTE FOR NIGHT full of insight, rage
Heavy Feather Review recently gave Marsha de la O’s Antidote for Night a glowing review, focusing particularly on the "precarious and vulnerable nightscapes . . . where [de la O] slips her scalpel beneath the slippery patinas of Southern California, flaying away media exaggerations to reveal the beauty and the bestial.”The review discusses in depth the style of Antidote for Night as a whole by citing the rage, generosity, love, anguish, and compassion that characterize the book.According to reviewer Sandra Hunter, "Antidote for Night contains the pain and random savagery, the searing beauty of the external and internal world, the endurance...
THE CHAIR named 'Best Poetry Collection'
Don Share, editor-in-chief of Poetry magazine, recently selected Richard Garcia’s The Chair as a "Best Poetry Collection of 2015" for Literary Hub. Released by BOA in late 2014, the book is composed primarily of prose poetry.Share says: "It is a dire—and common—fate for a superb book of poems to be overlooked, especially in a year like this past one during which so many wonderful books garnered prizes, acclaim, and media attention. Less familiar, perhaps, is another misfortune: that of the book published late in the year. A fall or winter publication date will occlude the reputation of a fine book...
EDUCATION named 2015 'Best Fiction Pick'
James McManus’ The Education of a Poker Player was selected as one of four "Best Fiction Picks from 2015" by Lauren Daley of South Coast Today, alongside such authors as Margaret Atwood, Lucia Berlin, and Paula Hawkins. According to Daley, "I’m not sure about the wine, but 2015 was a great year for books."McManus’ newest book delves into the world of an Irish-Catholic altar boy, Vincent Killeen, in the 1950s and '60s. Daley says, “If you were a middle-class Irish-Catholic altar boy in the 1950s and '60s, you will laugh reading this. Because I was not an Irish-Catholic altar boy...