BOA Blog

Photo courtesy of Hugh Martin and The New York Times BOA poet and Iraq war veteran Hugh Martin recently shared with The New York Times blog “At War: Notes From the Front Lines” his insights, deep emotions, and fears from his war experiences before deploying overseas. Martin's NYT piece, “Longing for the Test of War as a Young Man,” chronicles his time in the Army National Guard reserve, a six-year commitment he signed up for just three months before the 9/11/01 attacks, and his journey from Basic Training to that which he had never anticipated before: deployment. "The war began for...

A thorough and comprehensive Bookforum review of Craig Morgan Teicher's newest book To Keep Love Blurry finds through the poems a character we can "know and believe." In a complex and lovely exploration of the book's Confessional poetry, reviewer Hannah Brooks-Motl ties Teicher and his new book to two of "mid-century American poetry's big-name Roberts": Robert Lowell and Robert Creeley. "Like Lowell," says the review, "Teicher meticulously probes the intersections of writing poetry and living life. He can be lacerating, as was Lowell, in his depiction of himself as a father and husband. But Teicher's poems also obsessively chart a kind of...

Image courtesy of www.poets.org. National Poetry Month is just days away(!), and BOA is getting ready to celebrate by participating in a Buy One/Give One promotion during the entire month of April. How does it work? For every book of poetry you purchase through the BOA Bookstore this month, BOA will "gift" a free book of poetry to the recipient of your choice! The goal is to put more poetry into more hands, especially for those who don't ordinarily read poetry. Purchase a book of poetry through the BOA Bookstore this National Poetry Month, and we'll contact you via email...

"Whether you believed in it or not, whether you voted for it or not, it happened and the veterans exist and the Iraqis exist." —Hugh Martin BOA Poulin Prize-winner and Iraq war veteran Hugh Martin was featured recently on The Takeaway with John Hockenberry, for his forthcoming collection The Stick Soldiers (BOA, April 2013), to be released on the 10th anniversary of the U.S. Invasion of Iraq. Included on The Takeaway is an audio interview with Martin, which was aired nationally, as well as an article. In the almost-eight minute audio interview, Martin recalls his experiences with the war, the aftermath,...

BOA fiction author Douglas Watson discusses the writing process, his new book, and the best writing advice he has ever gotten. Douglas Watson’s “The Messenger Who Did Not Become A Hero”—the final story in his forthcoming short story collection The Era of Not Quite (BOA, May 2013)—will be published in One Story on April 8. Before releasing the story, the magazine ran an interview with Watson, a Q&A that yields side-splitting laughter and much, much more. In the Q&A, Watson shares his thoughts and insights on the writing process, on how his work for Time Magazine has affected his writing career,...