BOA Editions Blog

Peter Conners

Peter Conners has been promoted to Publisher of BOA Editions, Ltd.  His previous title was Editor/Marketing Director. Conners has worked at BOA Editions since 2003. He began his career as Marketing Director and was then promoted to Associate Editor before being named Editor in 2008. He has continued to direct BOA’s marketing throughout his seven years at the non-profit publishing house.

Board Chair Bernadette Catalana says, “The Board of Directors voted unanimously to promote Peter to the Publisher position. He has exhibited outstanding leadership skills throughout his career at BOA and we place our confidence in him to guide the press into the future.”

Conners says, “BOA Editions is one of America’s true artistic treasures. I am proud of our distinguished 34-year history and eager to see BOA flourish for many decades to come. I see my role as steward of an enduring tradition of great literary publishing.” 

In addition to his role at BOA, Peter Conners is a published author. His own books include the memoir Growing Up Dead (Da Capo Press, 2009), the novella Emily Ate the Wind (Marick Press, 2007), and the poetry collection, Of Whiskey & Winter (White Pine Press, 2008). His upcoming biography White Hand Society: The Psychedelic Partnership of Timothy Leary & Allen Ginsberg will be published by City Lights in November 2010, and his next poetry collection, The Crows Were Laughing in their Trees, will be published by White Pine Press in spring 2011.

BOA Editions, Ltd., the Rochester-based Pulitzer-Prize- and National-Book-Award-winning publishing house, received a 2001 New York State Governor’s Arts Award for overall artistic excellence. Now in its 34^th year, BOA has published more than 230 books of American poetry, poetry in translation, fiction, and other literature.

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Publishers Weekly, a major trade magazine for the publishing world, also maintains a blog called PWxyz. They describe the blog as, “a place to find late-breaking news on the book business, as well as other stuff that falls between the cracks of our other print and online coverage.”

The editor of PWxyz is BOA’s own Craig Morgan Teicher whose new book, Cradle Book: Stories & Fables, was published in spring 2010. Did this connection help BOA get recognition for our e-book publishing program in PWxyz? No doubt. But Craig is also a big advocate for e-book publishing and has been nudging us down this digital road since we first started working with him a couple of years ago. His faith in e-book publishing has certainly encouraged us to push forward with the program and we appreciate his recognition of the steps we have taken. As of today, BOA’s entire spring 2010 catalog is available on ibooks!

Here’s what Craig/PWxyz writes about the program:

Over the last couple of weeks BOA Editions–publishers of both fiction and poetry–have started appearing in the iBookstore. BOA is using services provided by its distributor, Consortium (via Perseus), to set up and publish on a couple of digital platforms–iBooks and Kindle for now.

Poetry publishers are just getting into e-books–Penguin does a few poetry e-books, as does Norton, Yale, and a few others, but many of the indies are just getting started. It seems to me that this is going to be a great avenue for poetry, which makes very little to no money, often functions on a nonprofit basis, and has a large portion of its readership–students–without much money.

BOA editor Peter Conners expresses concern to me about not being able to control exactly how the book appears on screen–whether line breaks in poems be preserved properly is one burning question–but says it’s worth the risk so the press can keep up with the changes in publishing.

So, poetry publishers, it’s time to follow BOA’s lead if you haven’t started with e-books already!

Now, a disclosure–BOA Editions is my publisher, which is why I have the skinny on this news. My book, a collection of stories called Cradle Book, was among the first BOA titles to be published in the Kindle store last Spring, and now it’s up in iBooks too.

Read and respond to the post on the Publishers Weekly website here:

[Poetry Publishers and E-books]

BOA Editions is proud to be recognized as a national and international publishing house. However, we’re also proud of our hometown city of Rochester, NY! BOA is located in Rochester’s “Neighborhood of the Arts” where we’re surrounded by a raft of art galleries, artist studios, and arts organizations. The city is currently building an “Art Walk” right across the street from our building. Here’s how the project is described on the Art Walk website:

“ Several civic, cultural, educational and community groups are working together to engage the public in extending this urban art trail, which will connect major Rochester cultural institutions in the Neighborhood of the Arts. Partners are collaborating with the City of Rochester to create an interconnected series of public spaces and public art, including a new sculpture park and a small amphitheater-as-art. Four anchoring works by New York and national artists will be linked by numerous public artworks by Rochester artists along three interactive sidewalks. The sidewalks will be embedded with artistic/audio/new media content gathered from residents and artists across the region. Thousands of residents will be directly involved in artistic creation.”

The people at Art Walk are currently gathering Rochester stories for the “Story Walk” part of the project. They’ve asked if we could help spread the word on that process and we’re happy to oblige. So here’s the Art Walk call for Rochester stories:

What’s your Rochester story? Which playground felt like home to you? How and why did your family come to Rochester? Or return to Rochester? Who triumphed over circumstance to change the world for others? Who met a downfall? Who survived an unfair circumstance to fight another day? What happened here worth remembering? What is your Rochester story?  

The ARTWalk Extension Project is looking for stories to be part of Story Walk, an interactive artistic sidewalk on North Goodman Street. The project is looking for short, true Rochester stories: memoirs, family histories, character studies, and incident reports from residents of all ages and backgrounds. These can either be written, from 50 – 500 words long, or a YouTube video under 3 minutes. The deadline is October 15, 2010.

 Your Rochester story can be unusual or offbeat, shared by many or unique to you. This can be a story of a public event or a private experience, from long ago or yesterday. It can be an everyday moment or an intersection with history.  

 Send your story in to www.artdrop.org. A selection panel and public input will determine which stories will be recorded and placed in Story Walk and made accessible on the internet and via cell phone, but all stories will be kept and archived. For more information about Story Walk go to www.artdrop.org.

You can also take part in a class to help you hone your story (at Writers & Books or OASIS), or you can try it out at Story Slams — see artdrop.org for a calendar of events. By August 30, there will be some videos to help you on the Story Walk page at ArtDrop.org.

Please pass this email on to anyone you think has a story to tell . . . and don’t forget to go to ArtDrop.org/story-walk to read all the great stories. You’ll be able to “like” your favorites November 16 – December 6.

ArtWalk Project Elements. Courtesy Bayer Associates.

A. Poulin, Jr. BOA Founder.

BOA is now accepting entries for the 10th Annual A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize contest. The prize is awarded to honor a poet’s first book, while also honoring the late founder of BOA Editions, Ltd. This year’s distinguished final judge is Jane Hirshfield.

Read all about the contest here [A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize]

Some poets are “early adopters” who submit their manuscripts early. Some are “deadliners” who sprint to the post office and shove their envelopes into the postal worker’s hands at the last minute.

Which are you? How about your poet friends?

Submissions for the contest opened on August 1st and we now have a stack of “early adopter” manuscripts here in the office. So here’s how today’s fun challenge will go:

1) Guess how many Poulin Prize submissions we’ve received as of today.

2) Post your guess in the Comment box on BOA’s Facebook page below the note about this contest. (If you’re not a Facebook friend yet… now’s the time!)

3) The first correct answer will receive free copies of our last two Poulin Prize-winning books: Beautiful in the Mouth by Keetje Kuipers and Awayward by Jennifer Kronovet.

4) We will notify you if you win the contest and also name you as winner on our Facebook page.

Don’t be a “deadliner” with your guess or an “early adopter” will swoop in and win the prize!

Good luck!

BOA Editions Presents “Writing Exercises”

At Midtown Athletic Club

(200 East Highland Drive, Rochester, NY)

Saturday, October 9, 10AM-2PM

BOA Editions, Ltd., the Rochester-based Pulitzer-Prize- and National-Book-Award-winning publishing house, will offer participants a chance to work with two nationally recognized visiting authors to “exercise” your writing muscles and tone up your imagination!

 “Writing Exercises” The workshop will consist of workshops in fiction and poetry, lunch (included in the workshop price), and a reading featuring visiting instructors and authors Christopher Kennedy and Gary Lutz. Participants will learn new writing techniques and be inspired to create their own poetry and fiction.

In his hour-long poetry workshop, Christopher Kennedy will share some of his favorite poems and use them as a springboard for creative “exercises” that will help participants create their own poems. In his hour-long fiction workshop, Gary Lutz will complement Kennedy’s exercises by exploring the short story and emphasizing how even a single sentence can become a meaningful mode of self-expression.   

Christopher Kennedy is an associate professor of English at Syracuse University where he directs the MFA Program in Creative Writing. Kennedy is the author of Encouragement for a Man Falling to His Death (BOA Editions, Ltd.), Trouble with the Machine, and Nietzsche’s Horse, and three poetry chapbooks. He has received grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts and the Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts and was the recipient of the 2007 Isabella Gardner Poetry Prize. His fourth book, Ennui Prophet, will be published by BOA Editions in 2011.

Gary Lutz is the author of Stories in the Worst Way (Alfred A. Knopf), I Looked Alive (Four Walls Eight Windows), and Partial List of People to Bleach. His work has appeared in NOON, The Quarterly, Conjunctions, Unsaid, Fence, StoryQuarterly, The Believer, Cimarron Review, 3rd Bed, Slate Magazine, and the New York Tyrant and has received grants from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. He is a professor of English and composition at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg and a 2010 visiting writer at Syracuse University’s MFA Program in Creative Writing.

Cost: $75 (including lunch). $50 for high school or college students. Limited enrollment. Sign-up deadline October 1^st.

For sign-up call (585) 461-2300.

Christopher Kennedy

Gary Lutz

We had a great response to the Ko Un brush paintings we posted here last week, so here’s another goodie from our translation files. Whenver possible, our translations include a handwritten poem by the author which we scan and print in the books. Today’s handwritten poem is by Turkish poet Ece Temelkuran from her collection Book of the Edge. In addition to being a world-class poet, Temelkuran is an award-winning journalist for one of Turkey’s most popular newspapers. You can read all about her at her website: Ece Temelkuran.

Ece Temelkuran. BOA poet.

Book of the Edge was translated by a dynamic young translator named Deniz Perin. Here’s a little from Deniz’s Introduction to the book:

“The poems in Book of the Edge are not overtly political. Some are not political at all. Those that make political statements do so in an understated, allegorical way. Temelkuran’s goal in these poems is to explore the human condition, exposing our weaknesses and our potential. But her insight into, and interpretation of, this human condition are undoubtedly inspired, at least in part, by her socially-involved upbringing and her many years of work as a journalist.
    “The book is, to use Baudelaire’s words, an invitation to a voyage. The speaker asks the reader to become an explorer, to leave the city and embark upon a journey of self-discovery. Although each poem stands alone, the poems work together to describe this quest; they turn into a modern, poetic fable, in which speaker, explorer, and reader merge into one. ‘You may not know it yet,’ says the speaker in the prologue, a wink at what is to come. ‘You are just like me.’”

And, finally, we come to Ece Temelkurans’ handwritten poem. When all is said and done, is there anything in literature more intimate than a handwritten poem?

Handwritten poem by Ece Temelkuran

In celebration of the release of their new record, Eight Belles, the band Jessie Murphy in the Woods did something truly, impressively unusual: they interviewed a poet. More specifically, BOA’s own Keetje Kuipers.

Why, you ask, would a band do something like that? Good question. Here’s what they say:

“We – Jessie Murphy In The Woods – have just completed the great adventure of releasing our first record, Eight Belles. We’ve put it out, we’ve played shows in homage to it, we’ve been interviewed about it, and we’ve traveled in support of it.

Now it’s time for something new.

It’s time to turn our attention from out put to input. We are seeking new sounds, words, ideas and inspirations. Part of our process of doing that is conversing with other artists and persons of serious intrigue. We’d like to share some of these conversations with you, 10 of them to be exact, in a series we call Thank You, Please, and Welcome to The Woods. We will be interviewing ten artists who are (by our lights) total luminaries in their craft. During these late August nights, surrounded by tall pines and whistling winds, we will warm ourselves by the fire of their intellect and we will share that warmth with you.”

And they started their series with Keetje Kuipers! Wow – a band that’s so interested in poetry that they turn the focus away from their own project onto the work of a contemporary poet? Give those folks a prize! Or, at the very least, a hearty round of applause.

Read the entire interview here and gain some new insights into Keetje’s debut collection, Beautiful in the Mouth, even above and beyond the author’s favorite kind of ice cream (one small hint: it’s “Peppermint–the kind with the little chunks of candy canes in it.”)

[Keetje Kuipers interview by Jessie Murphy In The Woods]

Keetje Kuipers. BOA poet.

The Write Question is an NPR show that, ”explores the world of writing and publishing in the Western United States.” Poulin Prize-winning poet Keetje Kuipers appears on the show today to talk about (and read from) her book, Beautiful in the Mouth, and the writing life.

Listen to the show here: [Keetje Kuipers on the Writing Life]

Here’s the program’s introduction to the feature:

Keetje Kuipers has a unique way of creating poetry: she walks and puts words to the rhythms of her strides. Once in a while, if a poem gets too long, she’ll grab an advertisement out of someone’s mailbox and a pencil from a laundromat so she can scribble the thing down. During this program Kuipers talks about her writing and travel experiences, and she reads a few poems from her first collection of poetry, Beautiful in the Mouth.

Kuipers teaches writing at the University of Montana and is currently a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. She divides her time between San Francisco and Missoula.

BOA Poets: Dan Albergotti, Cecilia Woloch, and Keetje Kuipers

The thrust of Wallace Stevens’ poem ”Not Ideas About the Thing But the Thing Itself” is often repeated as the hard nugget of a quote from William Carlos Williams’ poem “A Sort of a Song”: “No ideas but in things.” If ever a poet’s method could be distilled into five words, it is this.

 In the newest BOA translation, The Book of Things, (translated from the Slovenian and with an Introduction by Brian Henry), Aleš Šteger simultaneously adopts and discards this poetic advice. Each poem in the book is built around a single, simple noun (or “thing”). For example: Egg, Knots, Stone, Grater, Chocolate, Bread, Hand Dryer, Knives, Aspirin, Salt…

 In this way, Šteger hews closely to the notion of making poetry from the common “things” of our lives. However, once his subject is secure, Šteger launches into associative flights that make it clear that the noun, the object, the thing, is merely the start of his creative process. As translator Brian Henry writes in his Introduction: “In Slovenian, the poems in The Book of Things employ subtle sound play, puns, doublings, and echoes, which I have tried to transmute into English on a comparable linguistic scaffolding. Of course, the ideal translation of these poems would not be other poems, but the things themselves.”

Indeed. Here is one my favorite poems from The Book of Things that takes a carnivorous subject for it’s leaping off point: Sausage. While it may not be an actual sausage, or even the original Slovenian version of Šteger’s poem, it is a wonderous creation in its own right.

Sausage

Did you see? Two hundred thousand frankfurters

Demonstrated for workers’ rights.

Six million kosher salami gassed in the second world war

And a million hot sausages murdered fifty years later in the Balkans.

But at the same time, concern. The number of obese mortadella is rising.

It is necessary to take immediate steps against gonorrhea in the blood sausage.

And ooooh, some special sausage in a mini skirt.

And look at that Hungarian in high heels. Her stitch and wonderbra.

Meaty mixture of lies, fears, faltering and hope.

But why love, this frightening concept?

Is your stomach rumbling again? Come, put it in your mouth.

Between the anus and the mouth the appetite of a body for a body.

Bulimic mass, caught in the bowel of language.

Hurt it. Take it. Let the words burst between your teeth.

BOA poet Ales Steger. Photo by Joze Suhadolnik.