BOA Editions Blog

At the beginning of Mike Walker’s review of The Hands of Strangers by Janice  Harrington, a Boa Editions publication, Walker  acknowledges the difficulty an artist might encounter his attempts to render the voices of a marginalized people clearly, without suffering arrivals at heavy-handedness and cliche. Walker writes, “If you are going to entitle a poem ‘Old Photos’ in a book dedicated to life in the nursing home, you’d better be a true master with words and also be able to conjure a tale alive in very fast time,” a challenge to which “Harrington rises…time and time again.” An exploration of the shelved lives of the elderly, Harrington’s collection of poems enters a realm of things forgotten and lost; her subjects suffer immobility both within the planes of physicality and in navigating those of memory, the two losses often intertwined with one another. And though the  poems approach the difficulties of old age, the environments where they manifest themselves most helplessly with inspiring humility, as Walker writes in his review, “The impressive aspect isn’t in the empathy for both the elderly patient and the patient nurse that Harrington conveys but the nuanced, careful, way with words she applies in her approach to description.” Walker’s insight here aligns  Harrington’s work with the defense for all poetry;   the reason we read it–for the way the music of language can be scrupulously chosen and arranged in order to grant us entry into bigger-picture truths, line-by-line  letting us feel more palpably their every lift and prod. Janice Harrington published her first book of poems Even the Hollow My Body Made Is Gone with BOA Editions in 2007, and currently teaches creative writing at the University of Illinois. For writings by Mike Walker and other curiosities,  head over to Coal Hill Review.

Insightful and astute in his examinations of Alan Michael Parker’s writings, Colin Winnette of WordRiot.org had an illuminating interview with the BOA author earlier this month. The conversation between the two elicited discussion about the “boundaries between what a reader knows and learns,” specifically when it comes to interpretations of various genres: poetry, fiction, non-fiction.

Winnette asks fantastic questions which really get to the core of Parker’s thoughts, recurring themes, and literary elements. In a way, this piece is a thorough and captivating review of Parker’s work, as much as it is an interview with the author.

Parker, who has written works of poetry, novels, short fiction, non-fiction essays and criticism, and edited collections, tries to explore the boundaries between what a reader knows and learns. Poems should teach the reader how to read. All writings: poems, novels, short stories, should put your perceptions at risk; though some genres do this through sentences, and some through lines. Some works have music-like quality, like poetry, while others – like paragraphs – have wholeness as acts of thought.

What can we expect from a piece or collection of poetry? What is it that poetry can and should do to and for the reader? What is the fundamental difference between poetry and fiction? Is it structural, aesthetic? Find out how Parker and Winnette approach these problems and more over at WordRiot.

Forget the OSCARS; the 2011 National Book Critics Award is the prize worth watching out for, especially since Aracelis Girmay’s sophomore collection of poems Kingdom Animalia, published by BOA Editions, has been nominated in the category for poetry.  The award “honors outstanding writing and fosters a national conversation about reading, criticism and literature.” The National Book Critics Circle Board of Directors, which is elected annually,  nominates five authors for each category including autobiography, biography, criticism, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Past winners in the category of poetry include CD Wright, John Ashbery, Robert Lowell, and Louise Glück. This year’s winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on Thursday, March 8, at 6:00 p.m. at the New School’s Tishman Auditorium in New York. Go, Aracelis!

This week at the Rumpus, poetry editor Brian Spears speaks with Barbara Jane Reyes on oral poetry, creation myths, Avatar, and getting paid. Particularly interesting points include discussion on balancing the perpetuation of formal boundaries in poetry with the integrity of traditional Filipino culture, as well as the fetishization of native cultures in art and literature. If you have yet to read Reyes’ newest book of poems Diwata, published by BOA Editions in 2010, this interview will surely have you visiting the BOA bookstore to order your own copy. Additionally,  you can find further insights embedded within the interview from Brian Spears, whose sensitivity and humor serve to illuminate and provoke the kind of thoughtful responses one would hope to hear in any conversation. For more interviews, comics, and to sign up for “overly personal” emails from Rumpus editor Stephen Elliott, click here. See links to get your swag on with more BOA news and works from our all-star roster of authors .

Mere weeks into the new year, The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton, set to be released by BOA this September, is already being called a 2012 must-read by reviewer Craig Morgan Teicher from NPR Books. In a composite review of 8 highly recommended poetry collections for 2012, Teicher puts Clifton’s at the top of the list. He praises her work by suggesting to readers that – should they only read one poetry book in 2012 – Clifton’s new collection “ought to be it.”

As excitement builds for the release of this monumental book, which contains all of Clifton’s published (and a number of unpublished) poems, readers and reviewers will likely ruminate on the qualities which make her poetry so captivating and abiding, even after her passing.

This is a big year for Clifton’s readers – let the anticipation begin!

Click here to read Teicher’s review [Not Your Parents' Poems: A 2012 Poetry Review]

Poet Nikola Madzirov, whose collection Remnants of Another Age was published by Boa Editions March 2011, has been showcased in the Oxford Brookes Poetry Center’s Poem of the Week service, selecting his poem “The One Who Writes.” In case you haven’t subscribed to the Poem of the Week newsletter, which you can easily do by clicking here, each week, the Poetry Centre sends out works “from new poets and established names, from sections of sequences to works in translation,” to your inbox, helping to foster connections between poets, academics, and poetry readers.

You can read “The One Who Writes,” and other selected poems here.

To buy Remnants of Another Age, visit the Boa Bookstore.

Watch Weekly Poem: From ‘Movements Forward, Movements Away’ on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

PBS NewsHour is featuring Peter Conners, publisher at BOA Editions, as their Poet of the Week due to his imaginative prose in “Movements Forward, Movements Away.” The poem captures the reader from the beginning till end. Watch the video above to hear Peter’s reading or click here to visit PBS to read the excerpt as well.

GO PETER!!!!!

BOA author Aimee Parkison

So as a BOA intern I spend a lot of my time here surfing some of the stranger corners of the web, but every now and again I’m sent to a website that is genuinely awesome.

The Nervous Breakdown.com is one such site.

TNB, for me at least, just has the perfect balance of intellectualism, youthfulness and that intangible coolness to it.

Anyways, not too long ago TNB had a “Six Question Sex Interview” with BOA poet, Aimee Parkison in light of her recent work in Men Undressed. The new title is a collection of short stories about sex from a male character’s point of view, written entirely by female authors, such as Kristin Thiel, Susan Minot, Elizabeth Benedict, Alicia Erian, Diane William, and of course, Aimee Parkison.

When recollecting her first experience reading of Parkison’s work, TNB interviewer Gina Frangello explains that “[…]the way Parkison wove formal experimentalism with intense characterization and psychology let me know immediately that she was a writer with something new to impart, who could titillate both the brain and the emotions in equal measures.”

Given how interesting the premise for this collection is on its own and the caliber of writers attached to it, it’s hard to imagine that the result is anything less than astounding,  but Parkison makes it clear that there’s always a risk when writing about …gasp… sex.

“It’s a risk because it might seem like the work ‘isn’t right’ for the literary audience.  However, Men Undressed tries to break those boundaries by providing serious fiction about sex and desire – something that might appeal to many different types of readers – the sophisticated literary audience and also readers who like erotica and want to read sex in a new way.” – Parkison

Much like the rest of the website, the interview is fun, intelligent, and easily approached, so give it a read and definitely checkout the rest of the website to see what’s up.

Lastly, Parkison’s next book The Innocent Party will be published by BOA Editions May 15th of this year! Be excited!

Click Here for the Interview

and Here for a copy of Men Undressed

and Here for Parkison’s author page on the BOA website

Oh and Here for more fiction work by BOA authors

BOA poet Barbara Jane Reyes

BOA poet Barbara Jane Reyes was recently interviewed in the third issue of TAYO Literary Magazine

In it, Reyes discusses her thoughts on what it means to be a Filipina American poet, where her inspiration derives, and even gives advice to young writers who may be struggling with the age-old mantra “write about what you know.”

“I write not what I know, but rather what I want to find out. Much of what I write begins with a question, or a problem, or a visual in my mind that I need to unravel, give depth to.” – Reyes

Throughout the interview there’s a genuine sense of awareness Reyes has of herself and her work, which is exceedingly rare and equally thought-provoking. This characteristic of Reyes is most apparent when she discusses her process of learning and maturing as a writer, as she has analyzed exactly what she needed from herself and others to grow into the poet she is today.

“[…] for all of the anger and outrage in my work, specifically in the poems which became Poeta en San Francisco, I needed to move past my own assumptions, to know how to give specific names to that anger and outrage. I needed to know exactly what/who my personae were angry and outraged about, and to whom my personae should direct their outrage. Ultimately, I needed the space to learn the discipline of refining these poems to be artful, to have form and nuance beyond catharsis and rant. The experience of writing Poeta en San Francisco gave me the discipline to write Diwata, to take a very painful history and write it with a certain amount of focus, concentration, distillation of emotion and language.”

Not enough can be said about this interview by TAYO Lit Mag; it’s an insightful piece that any young writer with concerns for their writing future should read, enjoy, and take to heart. So please, give it a gander.

Click Here for the full interview

and Here for a copy of Diwata

The staff of BOA Editions is gearing up for a nice holiday break. From the top to the bottom of our hearts, we thank you for supporting BOA Editions in 2011. We look forward to a 2012 full of more great books and good times. Onward into the New Year! 

Happy Holidays from BOA Editions!