BOA Blog

By now, regular visitors to the BOA blog know about next week's "Poetry Is Jazz" event. We've been working for a while on getting BOA poet Sean Thomas Dougherty together with our amazing RPO/Eastman musicians Mark Kellogg, Jim Doser, Chris Assara, and Geoff Saunders. The event was already going to be cool. Then we bumped up the cool factor yet another notch. Local painter Steve Smock is one of our favorite local painters. And it's not just because he's designed some outstanding BOA book covers, including Sean Thomas Dougherty's first BOA book cover, Broken Hallelujahs. In fact, not only did Steve create the...

Sometimes you've got to go beyond your blog/Twitter/Facebook spaces and send out a good old-fashioned press release to drum up media coverage for an event. Here's the press release for next week's Poetry Is Jazz gig. If you edit or write for a publication, it's probably a good idea for you to do an article on this event. Just sayin'... For Immediate Release BOA Editions Hosts “Poetry Is Jazz” Event On Tuesday, June 15th, Rochester’s premier not-for-profit literary publisher, BOA Editions, will host Poetry Is Jazz. The event will feature BOA author and acclaimed performance poet Sean Thomas Dougherty reading...

[caption id="attachment_915" align="alignleft" width="190" caption="Peter Orlovsky (left) and Allen Ginsberg"][/caption] The poetry world is simultaneously small and enormous. It creates an immediate sense of intimacy while also sweeping across centuries and continents. Peter Orlovsky was in the thick of the Beat movement and, alongside Allen Ginsberg, logged more miles in the name of poetry (and lifelong adventure) than just about anyone. To many, he was a living embodiment of what we think of when we hear the word "poet." He died last week at the age of 76. Here at BOA, we give thanks for the spirit he brought into the world and the work...

You don't need to be from Rochester to make plans for the Rochester International Jazz Festival. It is what it says it is: an international jazz festival. And it's the real deal! The XRIJF runs June 11-19 and includes hundreds of shows spread out all over the city. The big names at this year's festival include Herbie Hancock, Gladys Knight, Jeff Beck, Bernie Williams, and Keb Mo. But that barely scratches the surface! Check out the full XRIJF schedule [Here]. And this year, BOA is throwing our hat into the XRIJF ring with a special event called Poetry Is Jazz! Here...

[caption id="attachment_900" align="aligncenter" width="202" caption="Book of the Edge. Poems by Ece Temelkuran, translated from Turkish by Deniz Perin."][/caption] Here at BOA, we like to say that a book has been "born" when it arrives at our office. Of course, that is our own biased opinion and could be debated a hundred different ways. When is a book born? Is it born when the author finally finishes the manuscript and submits it for publication? After it goes through the editorial and revision process? Once it is typeset? Once it is printed? Or perhaps a book isn't born until it is read... Or...