BOA Blog

To our readers, an apology-- BOA has been giving you so many good reads lately, your eyes are probably exhausted. To make amends, we offer this great audio discussion from the Poetry Foundation on the late W. D. Snodgrass! The discussion, titled "People Don't Read This Way Anymore," explores the late, great W.D. Snodgrass's formalism, dark humor, and passionate reading style. It is part of the Poetry Off the Shelf series, in which Producer Curtis Fox and Ernest Hilbert examine the world of contemporary American poetry with readings by poets, interviews with critics, and short poetry documentaries. So go ahead-...

Aracelis Girmay, receiving non-stop praise for her new collection Kingdom Animalia, will be one of the poets featured this upcoming month at the 2012 annual Poets House Showcase. This FREE exhibit, which will be open to the public and held at the Poets House in New York, NY, is the only event of its kind, giving dedicated attention to all things poetry. The FREE event is "diverse" and "inclusive," and is committed to making sure that "books from micro-presses receive the same care and attention as major publishers." The FREE Showcase Opening will be held this Saturday, June 30 (that's...

Now's your chance to hear John Gallaher read from his book, co-authored with G. C. Waldrep, Your Father on the Train of Ghosts (BOA, 2011)! Gallaher recently appeared as a guest on the radio show "Out of Our Minds" on KKUP 91.5 FM, Cupertino. The show is a weekly, hour-long program dedicated to poetry and hosted by poet J. P. Dancing Bear, author of five books of poems, six chapbooks, and more than 1000 individual poems. Gallaher's interview is now available as a podcast on the "Out of Our Minds" blog. Check out his reading and interview, and pick up...

One week, 204 poets, over 50 languages, and 100,000 poems flurrying to the ground from above. No, this is not a scene from an ancient Greek epic... But that is the idea of this year's Poetry Parnassus, a massive poetry celebration established as part of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad in London, which is being called the biggest gathering of poets in world history. From more than 6,000 recommended poets, 204 have been chosen to represent their nations at Southbank Centre in London from Tuesday, June 26th-- Sunday, July 1st, in an event to re-establish the poetic heritage of the ancient...

This Sunday, June 24th, BOA authors Michael Waters and Aracelis Girmay will read their poetry as part of Drew University's MFA Poetry Reading Series! The series (June 21-27) will feature performances from 14 award-winning poets from around the nation and is free and open to the public-- an opportunity you won't want to miss! Waters and Girmay will read at 7:30 in Mead Hall at Drew University (NJ), along with poet Alicia Ostriker. Waters, author of ten collections of poetry and professor at Monmouth University, is the co-editor of Contemporary American Poetry and has appeared in numerous literary journals. He...