Archive for January, 2010

Peter Makuck. BOA Poet.

We always knew that BOA poet Peter Makuck was a major outdoorsman. His forthcoming collection, Long Lens: New & Selected Poems, includes poems about scuba diving, skiing, fishing, jogging… all sorts of good, healthy, outdoorsy activities. But muskrat trapping? That was a new one to us!

Read the fascinating interview with Peter Makuck posted at the Sewanee website and find out why Peter’s son called him a “psycho” and why Ted Kooser told Peter he was lucky to have grown up when he did. And, of course, get the lowdown on the whole muskrat trapping situation:

[An Interview with Peter Makuck]

Christopher Kennedy. BOA poet.

BOA’s own poetry warrior Christopher Kennedy (Encouragement for a Man Falling to His Death) was just featured – and singled out for high praise – in a New Yorker article about Opium magazine’s tongue-in-cheek “Literary Death Match.” Christopher brought his A-game to a recent Death Match event at the Bowery Poetry Club as Meredith Blake notes in her article:

Read the entire article at: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2010/01/to-the-death.html#entry-more#ixzz0djYYMY6w

Lucille Clifton. BOA poet.

We are bursting with pride to announce that Lucille Clifton has been awarded the Frost Medal from the Poetry Society of America. The below press release was provided by the PSA and details the award and the ceremony. Congratulations, Lucille!

New York, NY, January 20, 2010—As part of its Centennial Year, the Poetry Society of America will celebrate its 14 award winners at an event in their home, the National Arts Club. Poet Lucille Clifton will receive the PSA’s highest award, the Frost Medal, which honors “distinguished lifetime service to American poetry.” Previous winners of this award include John Ashbery, Gwendolyn Brooks, Wallace Stevens, Allen Ginsberg, and Adrienne Rich. Influential in the world of poetry for more than forty years, Lucille Clifton will deliver the Frost Lecture to end the ceremony. Admission is Free.

For information, directions, and a complete schedule contact Rob Casper, Programs Director at the Poetry Society of America, at 212.254.9628 or rob@poetrysociety.org

About the Winner:

Lucille Clifton’s first collection of poetry, Good Times (Random House, 1969), was listed by The New York Times as one of the year’s ten best books. Her collection, Blessing the Boats: New and Collected Poems 1988-2000 (BOA Editions), won the National Book Award for Poetry. She is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, a grant from the Academy of American Poets, and an Emmy Award. In 1992, Clifton received the PSA’s Shelley Memorial Award, and in 2007 she won the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. From 1999-2005, she served on the Board of Chancellors of the Academy of American Poets, and has served as a Visiting Professor at Columbia University and George Washington University. From 1979-1985, Clifton served as Poet Laureate for the state of Maryland, and, since 1991, has held the position of Distinguished Professor of Humanities at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Her collections of poetry include An Ordinary Woman (University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, 1980), Quilting: Poems 1987-1990 (BOA Editions, 1991), The Terrible Stories (1996), and Voices (2008).

About the Award and Society:

The Robert Frost Medal is given by the Poetry Society of America to honor “distinguished lifetime service to American poetry.” The first medal was presented in 1930 to Jessie Rittenhouse, and has been an annual award since 1984. In 1995, the addition of the Frost Lecture was included in the Annual Awards Ceremony, held in the National Arts Club. Previous recipients of the Frost Medal include Robert Frost, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, John Ashbery, Stanley Kunitz, and Richard Howard.

The Poetry Society of America, the nation’s oldest poetry organization, was founded in 1910 for the purpose of creating a public forum for the advancement, enjoyment, and understanding of poetry. Through a diverse array of programs, initiatives, contests, and awards, the PSA works to build a larger audience for poetry, to encourage a deeper appreciation of the art, and to place poetry at the crossroads of American life.

eBookNewser featuring Craig Morgan Teicher

…in which Craig Morgan Teicher documents the long, perilous (okay, not really perilous, but occasionally tricky) journey toward his forthcoming story collection Cradle Book becoming an e-book. Will he make it? Tune in to find out:

[The Making of an Ebook] from Mediabistro

G.C. Waldreps Hat. BOA Poet Hat.

Congrats to Cecilia Woloch for having her book Carpathia named a Best Book of Poetry, 2009 by Herald de Paris:

“Carpathia, Cecilia Woloch (American Poets Continuum, BOA Editions) Anyone who knows or reads Cecilia Woloch understands that travel is what makes this exotic creature tick. And indeed, through the sultry-voiced abundance of every lush line, Woloch’s subjects are laced with the backdrop of far-flung places. Like taking a year off to travel around the world with a lover (or two), Carpathia finds each day an intoxicating delight. Likewise, every poem, page after page, is a fine one.”

See the whole list at: [Herald de Paris]

Disclamor by G.C. Waldrep continues to provoke thoughtful consideration too. Most recently Ryo Yamaguchi worked his way through the book on his blog Plots and Oaths. Here’s a sample:

“Second, and perhaps more importantly, is that this is the collection where Waldrep does come closest to the humanity, the pensive meditation more accessible to us, and it is useful, good, and enlightening to see him inhabit this looser, moodier territory, to attempt, at least, to bring what he’s learned in the constricted environments of his language play to the ruminations on natural, human, national and personal history and their dramas for conclusions.”

Read the whole blog at: [Plots and Oaths]

Beats at Naropa reviewed by BOA Editor Peter Conners

BOA Editors Thom Ward and Peter Conners are both active in the literary community – teaching, giving talks, writing and publishing their own work, and reviewing books by non-BOA authors. The current issue of Rain Taxi on-line features a review of Beats at Naropa: An Anthology (Coffee House Press, 2009) by Peter Conners wherein Conners says things like:

“As paterfamilias of the school, Ginsberg gets his say throughout this collection, as does its presiding spirit Anne Waldman, who co-edited the book with librarian and Naropa alumna Laura Wright. Many other heavyweights of the Beat Generation also speak through its pages: William S. Burroughs, Gregory Corso, Gary Snyder, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, among others. However, it’s the lesser-known figures of the Beat scene that make this book a valuable addition to the library of Beat commentary.”

Click here to read the Rain Taxi review of [Beats at Naropa]

Craig Morgan Teicher. BOA author.

Craig Morgan Teicher, author of a forthcoming collection of stories and fables, Cradle Book (BOA, April 2010), continues his Mediabistro blog on “The Making of an eBook.” Specifically, his BOA ebook!

“Welcome to the first part of an ongoing series on eBookNewser called “The Making of An eBook,” in which the blog will follow the process a small publisher goes through to turn a manuscript into an eBook. As we mentioned before the New Year, the book we’ll be following is mine–I’ve been permitted to drop the veil of the third person for the purposes for this series.”

Click here to read [The Making of an E-Book]

Cecilia Woloch. BOA poet.

Diane Lockward of Blogalicious does a feature called “The Poet on the Poem” in which she features one poem and then interviews the author about it. Currently, she’s featuring the poem “Blazon” from Cecilia Woloch’s newest collection, Carpathia. It’s always fascinating to hear a poet describe how much time, energy, and consideration goes into a poem, particularly when you have a poet (like Cecilia) who is experienced at discussing her work and teaching poetry.

Here’s Diane’s introduction to the feature:

“I’m delighted to have Cecilia Woloch for this second The Poet on the Poem feature. Over a year ago I did a Chapbook Spotlight on Cecilia’s Narcissus. Since then I have eagerly awaited her latest collection, Carpathia. After reading the collection and loving it, I contacted Cecilia and asked her to participate here.”

Click here to read [The Poet on the Poem: Cecilia Woloch] on Blogalicious.

Melissa Hall. BOA Development Director.

Thank you to all who have contributed to our annual campaign so far. To date we have received over $28,500 in donations. We’re on our way to our goal of $40,000 but not quite there yet. As book sales only fund 40% of our annual budget, the annual campaign is an extremely important source of funding for us. As a not-for profit independent literary publisher, we depend on you to help us continue our mission of fostering readers and bringing high quality literature to the public.

And high quality literature it is! Last year

Sharon Bryan. BOA poet.

Gently Read Literature has emerged as one of those increasingly rare breeds – an intelligent review publication that takes the time to publish in-depth, comprehensive reviews of poetry and fiction. It doesn’t matter whether a publication is online or in-print, any venue publishing thoughtful reviews these days should be celebrated and supported.

We’re thrilled to have Sharon Bryan’s Sharp Stars (winner of the Isabella Gardner Poetry Award for 2009) reviewed by J. Michael Wahlgren for the current issue of Gently Read Literature. The review starts:

“In Sharp Stars, Sharon Bryan is concerned with the use of language and its boundaries. She tackles certain concepts and analogizes them by comparison: one of which is the concept of “erasures” compared with former lovers as disappearing in a poem. The simple comparison of a star to a person is also made but Bryan, as with any concept, takes the idea a step further. In the poem “Stardust” Bryan writes “instead of seeing ourselves / wherever we look, we must see / things for what they are: stardust.” Bryan may be a romantic, at heart, and the former lovers whose presences grace the text disappear with, of course, a memory. Bryan accomplishes a lot in these pages, from introducing unique characters whose stories border reality or realities whose borders possess lasting character. In the text memory and character intertwine and to even to use an analogy, as lovers.”

Read the complete review here [Pinwheeling: J. Michael Wahlgren on Sharon Bryan’s Sharp Stars]