Archive for February, 2012

Peter Conners’, Publisher of BOA Editions, ‘Waiting to Hear from Lucille’ on the City Lights Booksellers and Publishers Blog is expressive and details an incredible journey of signs and poetry. At a reception that followed the Furious Flower reading, Peter Conners spoke with Lucille’s daughters, Lexi and Sidney, about publishing The Collected Works of Lucille Clifton. This conversation led to beginning the manuscript, and along the way Peter experienced his own series of signs and spirituality. Peter emphasizes how in the “body of Lucille’s poetry, you’ll see a poet moving fluidly between the natural and the spirit(ual) world, never clearly favoring either, never feeling the need to distinguish in that simplistic way, simply making her poems with all the experience and the worlds available to her.” Before making any significant decision in the publishing process, Peter paused and started waiting for a sign. Pausing for reflection also led to Peter knowing what he was truly waiting for- “I was waiting to hear from Lucille.”

Read the blog in-depth here.

The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton will officially be released on September 11, 2012, so be on the look out! The collection will contain all of Lucille’s published poems, and will contain more than 50 previously unpublished poems that were unearthed in her archives at Emory University. Speaking of good signs, September 11th is also Peter Conners’ birthday.

The AWP Annual  Conference & Bookfair is but a week away! Catch BOA authors, staff, and books throughout the weekend at the following times:

Thursday, March 1:

9:00 A.M.-10:15 A.M.

R102. On Being a Jewish Poet: Writing and Identity (Patty Seyburn, Jacqueline Osherow, Emily Warn, Yehoshua November)
Astoria, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
In the 21st century, what does it mean to be a Jewish poet? What is a Jewish poem? Some Jewish poets resist a fixed Jewish identity. Jewishness for C. Bernstein is “a practice of dialogue… an openness to the unfolding performance of the everyday.” Others write poetry rooted in Jewish tradition. M.L. Rosenthal writes, “A Jewish poem is a poem written by a Jew.” Marina Tsvetaeva goes so far as to say, “Every poet is a Jew.” Five Jewish poets discuss how poetry relates to identity.

R105. Ten Years of the Poulin Prize: A Poetry Reading (Peter Conners, Dan Albergotti, Janice Harrington, Keetje Kuipers, Ryan Teitman)
Continental B, Hilton Chicago, Lobby Level
A poetry reading celebrating the first ten years of the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize sponsored by BOA Editions. Four previous winners of this prestigious first-book award will read from their work: Dan Albergotti (The Boatloads), Janice N. Harrington (Even the Hollow My Body Made Is Gone), Keetje Kuipers (Beautiful in the Mouth), and Ryan Teitman (Litany for the City). The poets will also read from the work of the other previous Poulin Prize winners. BOA publisher Peter Conners will moderate.

10:30 A.M.-11:45 A.M.

R132. Sex, Drugs, and Rock ‘n’ Roll II: Handling Tough Subjects in the Workshop (Wendy Barker, Fleda Brown, Catherine Bowman, Jacqueline Kolosov)
Lake Erie, Hilton Chicago, 8th Floor
This is an expansion of the 2011 panel’s lively discussion on difficult social issues in workshops. We’ll offer examples of typical legal institutional guidelines and then consider our own moral compasses as creative writing teachers. Looking back to Virginia Tech and Tucson, we wonder, where do we draw the line in our classrooms when the law or university regulations are silent? What are our own personal limits? Do they have to do with taste? Tact? What is decency to us? Why does it matter?

12:00 Noon-1:15 P.M.

R154. In the Mirror of Translation: Perspectives on Creative Process (Helene Cardona, Willis Barnstone, Dennis Maloney, James Ragan, Betty De Shong Meador)
Continental C, Hilton Chicago, Lobby Level
How does one capture the essence and music of a poem in translation and remain faithful to the original? Working with Greek, Chinese, French, Spanish, Czech, and Sumerian, this panel’s poets, translators, and scholars discuss their role as technicians, intermediaries, and magicians working between languages to create inspired texts that reflect the human psyche, giving both cultures the opportunity to see one another through a different lens.

R166. Writing the Middle East, Crossing Genre, Crossing Borders (LeAnne Howe, Matthew Shenoda, Jim Wilson, Allison Adelle Hedge Coke, Hayan Charara)
Wiliford C, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
Crossing West to East into landscapes of olives and almonds, Arabian deserts and mountains, love affairs and war zones, green lines, religions, and concrete walls that divide, this panel explores how translation and transliteration play a role in writing the Middle East. Five writers with different experiences in the region give insights on how their particular genre: poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction, shapes their narratives of Egypt, Jordan, Israel/Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria.

1:30 P.M.-2:45 P.M.

R185. Out of the Stacks and onto the Market: The MFA Poetry Thesis Gets Serious, and Faculty Members React (Erika Meitner, Beth Ann Fennelly, Carmen Giménez Smith, Mary Biddinger, Alan Michael Parker)
Marquette, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
Autobiographical treatises, project books, greatest hits of the workshop—MFA faculty (who moonlight as press editors and book-contest judges) discuss pedagogical issues on advising MFA poets at the culmination of the degree. What makes for ideal thesis advising? Is an MFA thesis meant to be a book? We will explore the range of ways to shape a first collection, transcend conventions and clichés, and best advise students on balancing their development as poets with their professional goals.

3:00 P.M.-4:15 P.M.

R200. A Tribute to David Young (Angie Estes, Bruce Beasley, Thomas Lux, David St. John, Lee Upton)
Continental A, Hilton Chicago, Lobby Level
A tribute to David Young’s lifelong commitment to poetry on the occasion of his 75th birthday and publication of his selected poems. One of the founding editors of Field, editor of Oberlin’s poetry and translation series, and author of eleven poetry books and twenty books of translations and criticism, Young’s work has shaped contemporary poetry for over forty years. Each participant will offer a personal and critical assessment of his literary achievements and his profound, enduring influence.

R222. The Creative Writing Fulbright Fellowship Information Session (Erika Martinez, Summer Hess, Katrina Vandenberg, Jillian Weise)
Wabash Room, Palmer House Hilton, 3rd Floor
The Fulbright Program funds undergraduate and graduate students to study, conduct research, or pursue creative activities abroad for a year. This information panel is composed of past creative writing Fulbright fellows who will tell of the application process, the experience, and the professional, creative, and personal benefits of having received this prestigious award. They spent their Fulbright year in places such as Japan, Chili, the Netherlands, Paraguay, the Dominican Republic, and Argentina, writing poetry, plays, memoirs, nonfiction, and novels.

Friday, March 2:

F104. Not with a Bang but a Whisper (Hannah Fries, Dorianne Laux, Elizabeth Bradfield, Joseph Spece, Lia Purpura)
Continental A, Hilton Chicago, Lobby Level
While some poets choose to be overtly political or to expound topically on issues of our day, many take a quieter, more artful route to literary activism. How can poems speak to issues in surprising and moving ways, even while not seeming to be about an issue per se? How do poets use the subtleties of language to engage our consciences and startle us to attention? Join four slyly subversive poets and the poetry editor of Orion magazine as we explore these questions and more.

F121. Why Time Matters: A Discussion across the Genres (Fred Leebron, Andrew Levy, Brighde Mullins, Katherine Min, Alan Michael Parker)
Red Lacquer Room, Palmer House Hilton, 4th Floor
Our panel will focus on why time is the most crucial element in all genres of creative writing, beginning with how much time we choose to depict and extending beyond that to approach how we vary the treatment of time within each genre. While others might argue that character or point of view or narrative arc is the essential ingredient that shapes our work, we will argue that time is that ingredient.

10:30 A.M.-11:45 A.M.

F125. Writing for Young Adults (April Lindner, Marilyn Nelson, Helen Frost, Curtis Crisler, Meg Kearney)
Astoria, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
Young adult literature is as diverse and ambitious as any literature. What is the appeal of writing for a younger audience, and what are the practical concerns of the author who writes literary YA poetry or fiction? A panel of poets and novelists will explore the vibrant world of YA literature and examine the many ways in which it literature can be relevant, experimental, traditional, and necessary.

F144. Rewriting the Foreign: Toward a New Definition of Literature of the Americas (Peter Grandbois, Richard Burgin, Daniel Grandbois, Irene Vilar)
Honoré Ballroom, Palmer House Hilton, Lobby Level
Despite the fact that translations make up only 2.5% of all books published in the U.S., writers find a way to read across borders. The goal of this panel will be to discuss the very idea of foreignness. As editors of the forthcoming TTUP Americas Anthology of Contemporary Writing, we’ll discuss the need for a Pan-American anthology that uses language to forge a consciousness outside predetermined political, geographical, social, or literary boundaries.

12:00 Noon-1:15 P.M.

F149. Ghostwriting the Eulogy: How to Survive and Make Your Name beyond the Academy with a Degree in Creative Writing (Andrew McFadyen-Ketchum, Kim Addonizio, Dana Gioia, Maggie Dietz, Simone Muench)
Boulevard Room A,B,C, Hilton Chicago, 2nd Floor
With the expansion of programs in creative writing, more and more degreed creative writers are overwhelming the academic job market, causing many of us to seek different ways to make a buck while continuing to write. Ghostwriting, editing, independent scholarship, running a workshop, writing for TV: you name it and the five poets and novelists on this panel have done it. They will share with us the creative ways they’ve found to make a living and some tricks they’ve learned along the way.

F194. First Things First: What It’s Really Like to Win a Book Contest (Melissa Stein, Keetje Kuipers, J. Michael Martinez, Iain Haley Pollock, Nick Lantz)
Red Lacquer Room, Palmer House Hilton, 4th Floor
What actually happens after winning a first-book prize? Recent winners of five top poetry awards—the Walt Whitman, APR/Honickman, Bakeless, Cave Canem, and A. Poulin, Jr.—candidly discuss surprises and challenges and how publication changed (and didn’t change) their lives and their relationships to their writing. With all the benefits of 20/20 hindsight, they’ll share experiences with—and tips on—manuscript submission, the revision process, cover design, and the mysteries of book promotion.

F195. God at Every Gate: Dialogues with Silence (Katherine Towler, Gregory Orr, Kazim Ali, Jericho Brown, Alicia Ostriker)
State Ballroom, Palmer House Hilton, 4th Floor
Faith is not a word often heard in conversations about literature. It seems to have become a word American authors try to avoid, one claimed by the political right wing. The five acclaimed poets on this panel come from different faiths and backgrounds, but they all share a willingness to reclaim the word faith and to discuss its relationship to literature.

3:00 P.M.-4:15 P.M.

F199. Twin Muses: The Shared Literary Histories Between Poems and Songs (Charlotte Pence, Kevin Young, David Daniel, Claudia Emerson, Wyn Cooper)
Boulevard Room A,B,C, Hilton Chicago, 2nd Floor
This discussion seeks to untangle the highly connective web between songs and poems. They will examine how poems and songs share a literary history by addressing topics as varied as modernism, sonnet structures, oral variability, and radio hits. The panelists are part of a newly released landmark book, The Poetics of American Song Lyrics, which locates points of separation and synthesis between poetry and songs.

Saturday, March 3

12:00 Noon-1:15 P.M.

S151. Ethos, Logos, Pathos: Or, Who’s the Speaker Here? (Kathleen Graber, Jason Schneiderman, Laura McCullough, Reginald Dwayne Betts, Kazim Ali)
Continental C, Hilton Chicago, Lobby Level
Aristotle identified three means of persuasion: ethos, logos, pathos; character, reason, emotion. Obviously a great poem compels us in all three ways, but we rarely hear anyone talking about these purely rhetorical allegiances (as different from but not unrelated to the grammatical/syntactical choices and strategies) of the poetic speaker. This panel will explore all three categories in relation to voice, authority, and the trustworthiness of a poem’s speaker and how they make an impact on the reception of a poem by the reader.

S160. BOA Editions 35th Anniversary Reading (Peter Conners, Dorianne Laux, Michael Waters, Craig Teicher, Wendy Mnookin)
Waldorf, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
Now in its 35th year as a celebrated independent publisher, BOA Editions commemorates this major milestone with a reading that will feature writers who represent the significant body of work and diverse voices published by the press. The event will be moderated by publisher Peter Conners.

1:30 P.M.-2:45 P.M.

S174. Using “Fraudulent Artifacts” to Teach Fiction Writing (Matthew Vollmer, Arda Collins, Joseph Salvatore, David Shields)
Continental B, Hilton Chicago, Lobby Level
Panelists will present strategies for teaching and writing fraudulent artifacts—i.e., stories that masquerade as other texts. Special attention will be given to how the study and creation of stories as letters, instructions, glossaries, and personal ads—as well as a host of other genres—can inspire student experimentation and thus energize classrooms, as close examinations of these artifacts will produce—as a matter of course—vigorous discussions about structure, form, and voice.

4:30 P.M.-5:45 P.M.

S227. Homage to Édouard Glissant (1928-2011) (Ishion Hutchinson, Christian Campbell, Kwame Dawes, Matthew Shenoda, Laila Pedro)
Lake Michigan, Hilton Chicago, 8th Floor
Édouard Glissant, born in Martinique in 1928, was one of the great originals in Francophone and world literature, particularly because of his contribution to postcolonial discourse, not only as a theorist but as poet, novelist, and dramatist. Five writers will read from his work—in French, Creole, and in English– and their own. A discussion of Glissant, the writer and the man, his influence on the panelists’ work, will follow.

Stephany Prodromides’ review of BOA’s publication, Nomina written by Karen Volkman for “Poetry International #17,” highlights Volkman’s abstract wordplay in her poems. “There is no question that these are athletic poems; they open their fullest flower to those with a strong vocabulary.” Prodromide also states that within Volkman’s poems there is a certainty of truth, even mathematical truth, which are both essentially beyond understanding. Prodromide believes Nomina is fine work where meaning is both exponential and multidirectional within the book.

“The heavy consonance, end rhymes, internal rhymes, and the repeated ‘none’ and mathematical concepts create a musical meaning over and above the etymological one. We make meaning in and across these tensile sonnets the same way we pluck a constellation out of the night sky: by finding patterns in the sound or sense—most fruitfully, when both combine.”

Karen Volkman’s poems have appeared in numerous anthologies, including The Best American Poetry, The Pushcart Prize Anthology, American Poets of the 21^st Century: The New Poetics, and The Gertrude Stein Awards in Innovative Poetry. Recipient of awards from the NEA, the Poetry Society of America, Akademie Schloss Solitude, and the Bogliasco Foundation, she has taught as several universities, including the University of Alabama, the University of Pittsburgh, University of Chicago, and Columbia College Chicago.

Purchase Nomina here.

In Nick Courtright’s review of the BOA publication, Your Father on the Train of Ghosts written by G.C. Waldrep and John Gallaher, in “Gently Read Literature” Courtright stresses that the writers are a perfect match for each other.

He believes the writer can seek proof of Waldrep’s effortless execution or Gallaher’s effusive delightful tendencies, yet there is no need to attach a name to a single poem. Courtright states that the poets continually surprise the reader and the subversion of the narrative is insistently dream-like in its quality and unlike “narrative poems” are evasive and dodgy.

“The collection acts as a declaration that poetry isn’t a territory for certain themes alone, but a territory where everyone and everything is welcome. Indeed, you get the feeling that if Gallaher and Waldrep found themselves at a wedding reception, no element of it would be deemed unpoetic— the fake flower arrangements, the amalgamation of unrelated personalities, the clambering at the temporary open bar, all of these things (including the hammered speech of the best man and the doddering of someone’s doddering father-in-law) would be fair game. And it’s that vision, that biasless opening of experience and possibility, that makes this book a victory—everything is fair, everything is beautiful, everything a poem can do can be done, together.”

G.C. Waldrep collections of poetry include Disclamor (2007) and Archicembalo (2009), winner of the Dorset Prize. A 2007 National Endownment for the Arts fellow in Literature, Waldrep has also received a 2008 Gertrude Stein Award for Innovative American Poetry.

John Gallaher is, together with G.C. Waldrep, the author of Your Father on the Train of Ghosts, which was written in collaboration almost completely through email. Gallaher’s previous collections of poetry include The Little Book of Guesses (2007), winner of the Levis Poetry Prize, and Map of the Folded World (2009).

Click link to read Nick Courtright’s review and others in “Gently Read Literature” here.

Purchase Your Father on the Train of Ghosts here.

This year, to better celebrate Valentine’s day, our very own Peter Conners read poems from BOA authors Li-Young Lee and Wendy Mnookin at the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra Valentine’s Day performances this past week!

Each performance included music from Richard Strauss’ romantic Der Rosenkavalier, alongside the delicate Rose Absolute by Japanese-born Karen Tanaka and Stefan Jackiw returned to play Bruch’s ebullient Scottish Fantasy.

The selected poems this year were From Blossoms by Li-Young Lee and How Men, How Women by Wendy Mnookin and we’re happy to share them with you today to read and enjoy!

From Blossoms

By Li-Young Lee

From the book Rose

From blossoms comes

this brown bag of peaches

we bought from the boy

at the bend in the road where we turned toward

signs painted Peaches.

From laden boughs, from hands,

from sweet fellowship in the bins,

comes nectar at the roadside, succulent

peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,

comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.

O, to take what we love inside,

to carry within us an orchard, to eat

not only the skin, but the shade,

not only sugar, but the days, to hold

the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into

the round jubilance of peace.

There are days we live

as if death were nowhere

in the background; from joy

to joy to joy, from wing to wing,

from blossom to blossom to

impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.

How Men, How Women

By Wendy Mnookin

From the book What He Took

He wakes her in the middle of the night,

and says, Let’s go all the way.

OK, she says, but soon

his breathing – and the small snore -

tell her he’s asleep.

She watches

as the moon sifts

from one side of the room

to the other. In the morning

when she tells him, he says,

Oh, I meant, let’s stay together,

you know, forever.

BOA is excited. Want to know why?

The 2012 Annual Conference & Bookfair for the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) is coming up soon! And once again, BOA will be making its appearance.

Presenters, publishing presses, authors, readers, and other literary connoisseurs will gather together from Wednesday, February 29 – Saturday, March 3, in Chicago. A weekend full of events and activities is what’s in-store, including writing workshops, lectures, poetry readings, book signings, and more. (Rhyme not intended).

A couple of events to take special note of:

- On Thursday, March 1 (9 – 10:15 a.m.), BOA will present “Ten Years of the Poulin Prize: A Poetry Reading,” in celebration of the first ten years of the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize, sponsored by BOA Editions. Four previous Poulin Prize winners — Dan Albergotti, Janice N. Harrington, Keetje Kuipers, and Ryan Teitman — will read from their work and from the work of other previous winners.

- On Saturday, March 3 (12noon – 1:15 p.m.), BOA will commemorate its milestone 35th anniversary as an independent publisher with a very special reading. The event, called “BOA Editions 35th Anniversary Reading” on the Schedule of Events, will feature writers who represent BOA’s extensive body of work and the diverse voices which make our press what it is. (Those featured will include: Dorianne Laux, Michael Waters, Craig Teicher, and Wendy Mnookin).

BOA’s Editor Peter Conners will be present at both events to moderate.

BOA goes to this conference every year, and we’re looking forward to seeing our authors and readers! Come say hi to us at our tables (K3 and K4) and get the chance for discounts on books and to learn more about BOA!

For the AWP 2012 Conference’s Schedule of Events, click here.

We hope to see you there!

“Swan, As the Light Was Changing,” a poem by BOA poet Aracelis Girmay, is “Poem of the Week,” according to the Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre.

The poem was recently published by BOA in Girmay’s latest book, Kingdom Animalia, which won the 2011 Isabella Gardner Poetry Award. The poems in the book are considered to be “elegiac,” embracing and celebrating the dead along with the living. Girmay sees everything as “animal” in nature, and her poems give credit to all that is “difficult and beautiful about our time on earth.”

The Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre was established by the University’s English Department in 1998, with the overall goals to “produce research into 20^th and 21^st century poetry, promote poetry in the local community, encourage connections between poets, academics, and readers of poetry, and create space for discussion of issues surrounding 20^th and 21^st century poetry.” The Poetry Centre pursues these goals by hosting numerous events and regularly naming a new “Poem of the Week.”

To read the poem, click here.

To make Kingdom Animalia your own, click here.

And if you really love clicking links, click here to watch Aracelis Girmay read from her work!

 

In the review on Bookin’ with Sunny, Joanne Mallari honors Lucille Clifton’s poems in Mercy, a  BOA publication, and highlights Clifton’s ability to captivate the reader with only twenty lines. Clifton’s work is influential and examines gender, race, and family ties. Mallari emphasizes how Clifton’s verse is not only powerful on the page but allows readers to engage with the voices of Mercy. Mallari states, “Each reader will enter the collection bringing something different, and exit carrying a message that is uniquely theirs. In this mutual relationship between reader and poem, one may just discover that shared memory is the mercy that follows loss.”

 Lucille Clifton is an extraordinary poet who will never be forgotten. This February it will be two years since Lucille passed away. BOA is publishing The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton on the 17^th of August this year. The volume will contain all of Lucille Clifton’s published work and also more than fifty of her previous unpublished poems. The foreword is written by Nobel Prize-winner, Toni Morrison. Be sure to be on the look out this year for this memorable publication.

Remnants of Another Age, a translated book of poems by Macedonian writer Nikola Madzirov, recently recieved keen praise from Mike Walker of Tottenville Review.

A difficult language to access - let alone translate for publication - Madzirov’s Macedonian tongue is considered a “rare treat” in literature, and Walker recognizes the risks taken in (as well as the dire necessity for) publishing such a work. Walker clearly has a profound connection to the book and an adept understanding of the poems within it. He comments on the advantage of Madzirov’s age – being that he is wonderfully balanced between the past struggles of Communist rule and the difficult time of transition “from Soviet models toward a new day of post-Yugoslavic independence” - yet he speaks with a unqiuely contemporary voice, not consumed by “Soviet tones.”

Walker emphasizes that Madzirov’s poems are rare experiences which should be treasured. He calls them “deep, sturdy, robust creations” that make one feel “in the midst of something grand.” He observes that Madzirov’s voice comes from a place where history not only lives in textbook pages, but is ingrained in every aspect of society, “natural as leaves and bone in all fabrics of life…” He commends Madrizov’s translators for endeavoring to spread his poems around the world, while also managing to keep intact the poet’s unique and intended voice.

Walker’s greatest praise of the book, however, is that it is ready and available for the eyes of English-language readers. He applauds not only Madzirov and his translators, but also BOA, for daring to publish such a complex piece of work for the sake of continuing the dialogue of quality literature. Words like Madzirov’s are meant to be read and appreciated by people all over the globe — and now that chance is here.

To read Walker’s review, click here.

To experience Madzirov’s translation for yourself, click here.

 

Travis Smith’s review of Ennui Prophet, a BOA publication, in The Carolina Quarterly emphasizes Kennedy’s dark humor and eye for the surreal image, which make his poems enjoyable to read. Smith also connects Kennedy to Baudelaire, making several references throughout the review. The review states, “Kennedy has clearly studied up on his Spleen. Like Baudelaire, Kennedy’s depressed speakers often find themselves yearning for other realities, to see the world with a renewed sense of enchantment.”

Christopher Kennedy is currently the Director of the M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing at Syracuse University. He has published various collections of poetry. His writing has appeared in print and electronic journals including Ploughshares, The Threepenny Review, Double Room, and Del Sol Review among many others.