BOA Blog

Aurelie Sheehan's Jewelry Box (BOA, Fall 2013) was recently featured by Tucson Weekly. The new collection alludes to Sheehan's own personal life experiences in brief, thoughtful stories. "Not quite prose poems, not quite flash fiction, not quite memoir--nonetheless all of the above--the little pieces in Aurelie Sheehan's new collection that she calls 'histories' do, in fact, hint at her life history," says the review. "Her entries--some as short as a single paragraph; none longer than a few pages--explore feminine sexuality, motherhood, daughterhood, and the writer's life related to feminine sexuality, motherhood, daughterhood." "These 'histories' can shimmer exquisitely jewel-like." Sheehan was...

Geffrey Davis is winner of the 2013 Anne Halley Poetry Prize from The Massachusetts Review for his poem “What I Mean When I Say Farmhouse.” The poem comes from his forthcoming collection Revising the Storm (BOA, April 2014). This debut collection by a Cave Canem fellow burrows under the surface of gender, addiction, recovery, clumsy love, bitterness, and faith. The tones explored—tender, comic, wry, tragic—interrogate male subjectivity and privilege, as they examine their “embarrassed desires” for familial connection, sexual love, compassion, and repair. Revising the Storm speaks to the sons and daughters affected by the drug/crack epidemic of the ’80s...

We are pleased to announce that Geffrey Davis has been nominated for a 2013 Pushcart Prize by Sycamore Review for his poem "What I Mean When I Say Elijah-Man." The poem comes from Davis' forthcoming collection Revising the Storm (April 2014), winner of the 12th annual A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize. This debut collection burrows under the surface of gender, addiction, recovery, clumsy love, bitterness, and faith. The tones explored—tender, comic, wry, tragic—interrogate male subjectivity and privilege, as they examine their "embarrassed desires" for familial connection, sexual love, compassion, and repair. Revising the Storm speaks to the sons and daughters...

The Book of Goodbyes is once again named a "Best Book of 2013," this time by NPR Books, which placed the collection in categories "Poetry & Short Stories," "Let's Talk About Sex," and "Seriously Great Writing." This year's NPR "Best Book" list (online) is a "choose your own adventure," where readers can explore more than 200 standout titles selected by NPR staff and critics, and read about why they love them. According to Craig Morgan Teicher's recommendation for The Book of Goodbyes, "Jillian Weise ... is a force of nature. This collection follows up her debut, The Amputee's Guide to...

[Translator Bruce Weigl and author Nguyen Phan Que Mai, of The Secret of Hoa Sen] Douglas Valentine of political newsletter Counterpunch recently sat down with BOA translator Bruce Weigl to discuss war writing and his forthcoming translation The Secret of Hoa Sen (BOA, Fall 2014). Weigl, "one of many young Americans who heard the banshee wail of close combat in Vietnam," is considered a war writer. According to Valentine, he "assembles the archetypes of war and presents them with ruthless force that shatters our assumptions about ourselves, and what we represent, and he does it in such an effortless way, it's...