BOA Blog

Coming into my internship experience at Boa Editions as a business student with no prior experience in publishing, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. But over the course of my time here, I learned not only about the industry, but about the work and care that goes into running a non-profit arts organization. Every day brought something new to learn; whether it was helping log prize submissions for upcoming collections or understanding the behind-the-scenes operations that keep this independent press moving forward. The office itself quickly became one of my favorite places, with the sound of the heat clinking...

I spent most of the first day reading Lucille Clifton’s At the Gate, a collection I would write about for this blog in one of my favorite intern tasks. As I sat there reading, scribbling notes in a little tan notebook, I felt a kind of thawing: I was reinvigorated by Clifton’s work, and reminded how much I really want, and might actually need, to read poetry to feel alive and immersed in the world.

Positive Blatherings host Scott Fitzgerald interviews Boa Publisher and Executive Director, Peter Conners, in an episode entitled "The Deadhead Running the Poetry Press That Put Rochester on the Map". Peter discusses Boa's origins, his personal writing journey, 22 years working at Boa, digital poetry formats, and the future of independent literature. Watch Positive Blatherings on ROC Vox's YouTube here!

Rochester, NY. March 2nd, 2026—Boa Editions is proud to announce that Alejandro Lucero of Baltimore, MD is the winner of the 25th annual A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize. His winning manuscript, At the Bottom of the Sea with One Light, was selected by celebrated poet and writer Rigoberto González. At the Bottom of the Sea with One Light will be published by Boa Editions in Spring 2027 as part of the New Poets of America Series with a foreword by Rigoberto González. Lucero will also receive a $1,000 honorarium.   On selecting this title, González writes: "Alejandro Lucero’s gorgeous book...

So many lines and phrases stand out from this collection as new favorites—among them, “as if paint could stop peeling/from our houses every year.” It’s difficult, though, to extract quotations from the complete poems, knowing that the weight of Clifton’s words often comes from the way she deliberately positions phrases within each poem to startle, delight, or warn.