BOA Blog

Can you imagine a life with rare access to quality literature? There's nothing quite like buying a new book, cracking open the fresh binding, and digging into the insights and voices of others. In recent years, adult illiteracy rates in New York State have been an increasing concern, especially in outlying (often overlooked) counties with low per capita income levels. In an effort to reach out to these under-served communities, The Poulin Project (full name: "Al Poulin Jr. Independent Publishers Development Project"), which is named in honor of BOA's Founder, is offering free box sets of literature to Literacy, GED/ESOL...

Just days ago, Star Tribune reviewed one of BOA's newest titles The Reindeer Camps by Barton Sutter, calling the poet a "virtuoso of form" and "meter," a rather rare quality today. The review also makes it clear: this is poetry with a sense of humor! Sutter's poetry so naturally embodies rhythm, metaphor, and rhyme, that the review acknowledges it's no surprise that Sutter is also a musician. With musical quality, playful descriptions, and profound insight, Sutter's The Reindeer Camps shows he is "unafraid to employ meter and humor" as he "revels in the natural world" and writes poems "that reveal...

Recently, Ryan Teitman's Litany for the City was reviewed and highly praised by Mary: Journal of New Writing. The careful and thoughtful review catches on (and gives full credit and appreciation) to all the finer details of Teitman's new book.  Highlighted are the skills Teitman employs through his language and other poetic devices:  from his choice of the word "litany" to his use of the preposition "for" in the book's title. Called "impressive" by the review, it is suggested that the artfulness of Litany for the City comes from Teitman's ability to balance "curiosity about present and ancient cities" without...

The extensive collection, Your Father on The Train of Ghosts, evolved when two outstanding poets e-mailed one another for the period of a year. John Pursley III reviews this collection written by both G.C. Waldrep and John Gallaher in Diagram (12.2). Pursley explains the differences between Waldrep's and Gallaher's poetry and background. What is more interesting is that Pursley believes the poets lose their individual voices, and yet another distinct voice is created "which operates like the ghosts suggested by the title." Pursley also says, "Many of the best poems in this collection slip effortlessly from moments of childlike inquisitiveness...

BOA publisher Peter Conners was in for a very pleasant surprise this morning when he hopped into a New York City taxicab and was greeted by a familiar sight. The poem "Noche de Lluvia, San Salvador" by  Aracelis Girmay from her latest collection Kingdom Animalia (BOA 2011), appeared on Taxi TV  as he was being whisked from JFK to his sales conference downtown. How cool is that? Girmay's poem, along with the poem "Graduation" by Dorothea Tanning, is being used for the re-launch of the Poetry Society of America and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Poetry in Motion program. Dormant for the past...