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Giving Back: A Spotlight on BOA's Book Donation Program

The giving season is upon us! As our readers share their favorite books with the BOA Holiday Book Sale and our supporters help us raise the bar with BOA's Annual Campaign, the BOA staff and board would like to share a behind-the-scenes look at one of the lesser known programs here at BOA Editions.

Did you know that BOA helps support reading and literary programs across the country? It's true! Every year, we give back to the literary community by donating hundreds of new and gently used books to organizations in need through our Book Donation Program. These organizations include school libraries, senior centers, prisons, senior centers, and other institutions that do great work serving children and adults but that lack the funding to purchase books for their programming.

Map of recent BOA Book Donation recipients
Map of recent BOA book donation recipients

In the past two years, BOA has donated over 400 books through the Book Donation Program. Recent recipients have included Poetry Out Loud, which helps students across the United States build self-confidence and public-speaking skills through the memorization and performance of contemporary poetry.

The BOA team is also proud and humbled to have helped the ongoing recovery efforts in Puerto Rico by donating over 200 copies of books by Spanish-speaking poets to El Salón Literario Libroamérica en Puerto Rico to help rebuild school libraries devastated by Hurricane Maria.

"This will make a BIG difference," said Ricardo Maldonado, Managing Director of the Unterberg Poetry Center in New York. Malonado notified BOA of Salón Literario Libroamérica en PR's need and assisted with distributing BOA's donated books as part of the #PoetsforPuertoRico movement at el Festival de la Palabra. "Your generosity means the world—and shines on all of us."

Other recent recipients of BOA book donations have included Prairie Schooner's African Poetry Book Fund, Rochester Poets, Urban Poetry Pollinators, the Best Life Cancer Benefit, The Loft Literary Center, Poets House, and the University of Rochester Queer Students of Color group library.

By donating copies of books from our extensive catalog of titles to a broad range of organizations and institutions, BOA's Book Donation Program helps grow literary libraries while promoting the use of poetry in literary programming. Above all, we help participants young and old become better readers, find books and voices they relate to, and foster a lifetime of reading.

You can support the BOA Book Donation Program by contributing to our annual campaign.

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