BOA Blog

Rochester, NY—BOA Editions, Ltd. is proud to announce that Leigh Lucas of San Francisco, CA is the winner of the 24th annual A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize. Her winning manuscript, Splashed Things, was selected by celebrated poet and writer Maya C. Popa from a pool of nearly 800 original submissions. Splashed Things will be published by BOA Editions in April 2026 as part of the New Poets of America Series with a foreword by Maya C. Popa. Lucas will also receive a $1,000 honorarium. In selecting Splashed Things, final judge Maya C. Popa writes: "Profoundly affecting and finely crafted, this collection enacts...

Chaun Ballard is a doctoral student of poetry at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, an affiliate editor for Alaska Quarterly Review, an assistant poetry editor for Prairie Schooner, and an assistant poetry editor for Terrain.org. He is the author of the chapbook Flight, which received the 2018 Sunken Garden Poetry Prize and is published by Tupelo Press. Ballard's poems have appeared in The Atlantic, Narrative Magazine, Oxford Poetry, Poetry Northwest, The Missouri Review, The New York Times, and other literary magazines. In the following self-interview about his first collection of poetry, Second Nature, winner of the 23rd annual A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize, Chaun discusses personas, sonnets, and being in...

We are thrilled to announce that Janice N. Harrington’s Yard Show has been named to the prestigious 2024 National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) Awards Longlist in Poetry! This recognition highlights Harrington’s incredible poetic craft and the vital storytelling in her latest collection. Blending Black history, cultural expression, and the natural world, Yard Show investigates how Black Americans have cultivated a sense of belonging in the Midwestern United States. Through vivid descriptions of objects found in yard shows, Harrington's poetry transforms everyday items into symbols of creativity, resilience, and identity. Praise for Yard Show Publishers Weekly called the collection "a delightful...

    Join us in congratulating longtime BOA Editions author Naomi Shihab Nye on receiving the 2024 Wallace Stevens Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Academy of American Poets! Naomi’s poetic brilliance and unwavering commitment to hope and humanity have touched readers around the world. As the proud publisher of her collections Fuel, Red Suitcase, The Tiny Journalist, Transfer, and You & Yours, we invite you to rediscover these powerful collections available in paperback, digital, and audiobook formats.  Click here to view the Academy of American Poets Press Release Click here to view the Associated Press's article

Yard Show by Janice N. Harrington is a powerful collection of poems depicting the life and reality of being a Black American. It presents the reality of Black History with a personal touch. It’s powerful in the way that it cuts straight to the point and makes you think about all the things you’ve seen reported in the news, or stories that families have shared about their own experiences. I was genuinely surprised by how forward and honest this book was depicting the brutal reality of our world. There were quite a few poems in this book that I had...