BOA Blog

The Journal is calling Douglas Watson "a very smart writer," in a review of his new fiction collection The Era of Not Quite. "What it means to live in the Era of Not Quite is to reach for a thing, and not quite seize it. And then to keep reaching," says reviewer Elizabeth Zaleski. "Watson’s thoughts on this tension illustrate his sensibility as a writer..." The review places the new collection in a literary world where readers are made to question the very nature of writing, to the wires and seams: "The Era of Not Quite is a stunning example of...

We are thrilled to announce Robin McLean as winner of the third annual BOA Editions Short Fiction Prize for her collection Reptile House. The collection was selected from nearly 200 manuscript submissions by BOA Publisher Peter Conners. Robin McLean will receive a $1,000 honorarium and book publication by BOA Editions, Ltd. in spring 2015. Of the collection, Peter Conners says, “Robin McLean’s Reptile House introduces us to a debut author of audacious originality. Her stories probe the underbelly of human behavior revealing the darker motivations behind the chilling interactions she breathes to life. Like all great works of literature, the...

Hugh Martin; Photo courtesy of Akron Beacon Journal Hugh Martin recently sat down with the Akron Beacon Journal at his family's home in Macedonia, Ohio, to discuss what led him to turn his Iraq War experiences into his new book The Stick Soldiers. According to the piece, "Martin had never written a poem when he was deployed to Iraq nearly a decade ago." Instead, while taking a poetry class at Muskingum University after serving in Iraq, he discovered his poetic voice through encouraging professor, Jane Varley. "'He had a poet’s sensibility, and it was simple to get him started,' Varley said....

Poetry International recently reviewed Nikola Madzirov's poetry translation Remnants of Another Age  (BOA, 2011), charging the collection with an "uncanny sense of intimacy ... and, equally, a sense of intimacy to the uncanny." The review lists the tools Madzirov uses in his collection to create such an effect: "A penchant for skillful and inevitable repetition and the way each poem is inhabited by this sense of paradox and parallax view ... along with an ease--what seems a superior trust in glancing details to create their implications..." Futher dissecting these qualities, the review recalls Sigmund Freud's study of the word for better...

Save the Date! Sunday, September 29, 2013 We are thrilled to announce that renowned poet Li-Young Lee is coming to Rochester this fall, to read at BOA's 16th Annual Dine & Rhyme! For those unfamiliar with this highly-anticipated event, Dine & Rhyme is BOA's one-and-only fundraising event gala of the year. The evening includes a poetry reading and book signing, followed by a dinner and silent auction. (As a not-for-profit independent publisher, we rely on the generosity of supporters to help us bring wonderful and necessary literature to the public.) This Dine & Rhyme, Li-Young Lee will read from his...