Archive for November, 2010

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 “The City in Which I Love You” by Li-Young Lee.

This event is free and open to the public. In addition to dessert, snacks, drinks, and entertainment, BOA will also be offering special book deals. In fact, our whole building (known as the Anderson Alley Artists) will be wide open with artists of every stripe and discipline displaying and selling their work, mingling, and ringing in the  holiday season!

The open house lasts 5-9PM. The dance performance will start promptly at 7:30 and will last 15-20 minutes.

If for some crazy reason you can’t make it here on Friday, we’ll also be open on Saturday afternoon from 11AM-4PM (same book deals, but no dancers, sorry).

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 McOmber.

Congratulations to all our sister presses, literary journals, and arts organizations that received support for their great efforts. The complete list is available here: Access To Artistic Excellence Awards

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 no limits.  Her poems dance this amazement.”

Congratulations, Sharon – and continued success with Sharp Stars!

Sharon Bryan. BOA poet.

In this longer clip, Sean Thomas Dougherty gracefully reads a poem full of fall colors, while the ABC quartet plays low, autumnal tones behind him.

[Click here to watch video. . .]

BOA poet, Anne Germanacos talks with Michael Krasny from KQED radio on the Forum. They discuss many things literary including her latest collection In The Time Of Girls. Her work has appeared in over 60 literary reviews and anthologies. Germanacos shares stories about her time studying in Greece , where she eventually met her husband. She reads a story out of the new book titled “Twenty-nine Stones for You to Hold” and “Until We Go To Sleep.”  Michael Krasny is extremely taken by the prose, calling it musical and poetic in nature; it is human: filled with pain, frustration and the ever elusive moments of peace.

Please click here and listen to this beautiful, imaginative, and intriguing literary conversation.

Enjoy!

Sean Thomas Dougherty reads a poem inspired by and named after the old jazz standard, “Embraceable You,” [click here to view video] from his book Broken Hallelujahs published by BOA Editions, Ltd. in 2007.

The ABC Quartet follows the reading with a beautiful, instrumental version of the song.

[Click here to watch the band play. . .]

The reading continues [click here to view video]. . . Sean Thomas Dougherty shares another selection from Broken Hallelujahs during BOA Editions, Ltd. “Poetry is Jazz” event at RoCo.

Please check out the second chapter [Please click here to view video]

from our “Poetry is Jazz” event at RoCo last June. In this installment BOA poet Sean Thomas Dougherty reads a poem from his book Broken Hallelujahs over a time-lapse video of artist Steve Smock creating an improvisatory painting.

White Hand Society by BOA's Publisher Peter Conners

Peter Conners is not only BOA’s Publisher, but he’s also an author in his own right! His latest book, White Hand Society: The Psychedelic Partnership of Timothy Leary & Allen Ginsberg, weaves a fascinating and entertaining tale of the life, times and friendship of these two larger-than-life counterculture figures and the incredible impact their relationship had on America. The book was released this week by the legendary indepedent City Lights Books and is just reaching a bookstore near you!

In celebration of the publication of White Hand Society, BOA has arranged a fundraiser through Barnes & Noble stores. Here’s how it works: 

In Rochester:

In the Rochester area, 10% of every item you purchase at the Pittsford Plaza Barnes & Noble (3349 Monroe Avenue, Rochester, NY 14618) on Saturday, November 6th can be donated directly to BOA. Just tell them that you’re supporting BOA at the checkout and the cashier will take care of the rest. Peter will also be reading and answering questions about White Hand Society at that store  on November 6th starting at 7PM.

At National Barnes & Nobles:

All day on 11/6 give the number 10339323 at the checkout and 10% of your purchase will be donated to BOA. It’s just that easy!

Online Donations:

From 11/6-11/11 shop through www.bn.com/bookfair and enter the number10339323 at the checkout. 10% of your purchase will be donated. to BOA. For all you e-book curious folks, this includes all Nooks and Nook related products too.

The holidays are fast approaching, so we hope you’ll take this opportunity to do some early shopping and support two great independent publishing houses (and one Publisher) with your purchase!

If you search for “BOA Editions” on YouTube you’ll come across all sorts of cool videos of our authors reading at different venues. But now BOA has our very own YouTube Channel – and we’re about to start packing it with some high quality literary viewing!

Our first offering is from BOA’s “Poetry is Jazz” event, held at the Rochester Contemporary Art Center on June 16th 2010, featuring BOA poet Sean Thomas Dougherty and the ABC quartet. This video (I really want to call it a documentary because it’s certainly more than just a straightforward videotaping) was done by Icon Creative. We give special thanks to Icon’s president Tim Wainwright. Also a special shout-out to Steve Smock who created a painting during this event which he subsequently donated for auction at our annual Dine & Rhyme last month. In subsequent segments, you’ll see time lapse video of Steve creating the painting and a great shot of the final product.

The Poetry Is Jazz video is now broken into a dozen sections of 5-8 minutes each. We will be adding new segments to our YouTube channel throughout October and by the end of the month, the whole thing will be posted.

Happy Viewing!