BOA Blog

In a recent review, Zenith City Weekly examined Barton Sutter's latest, The Reindeer Camps (BOA 2012), citing Sutter's rhythm-driven narrative style and quasi-autobiographical episodes that make his poetry so unique. The reviewer writes, "My favorites constitute slivers of memory, although ultimately whether they are autobiographical or creative inventions hardly matters to their validity or value." Regarding Sutter's "account" of reindeer herding in Siberia, the reviewer continues, "the details make the poems real, which is more important than merely being true." Sutter's collection is a thought-provoking reconsideration of life's complexity, and more importantly, simplicity. Read more about this new work at...

Every fall, poets and readers alike gather in New York City for the Poets Forum, a three-day celebration of poetry hosted by the American Academy of Poets. This year, the 6th annual Poets Forum will take place October 18-20 on the campuses of New York University and The New School, and will feature over 30 major American poets, including BOA poets Naomi Shihab Nye and Craig Morgan Teicher! Forum events include a Chancellor's reading by the Academy's fifteen Chancellors (including Nye), a series of discussion panels with major poets on topics and issues in contemporary poetry, guided walking tours revisiting...

Weston Cutter of Rain Taxi Book Reviews is calling Joe Salvatore's debut short-story collection To Assume a Pleasing Shape a "magnetic and propulsive" work of fiction. As Cutter puts it, the eleven stories in the collection are about "how life is more than simply a matter of keeping up 'spirit and spine,' how life is about living within the knowledge of our own end, and trying to love and share ourselves despite the casual doom of the day-to-day." According to Cutter, "Salvatore offers narratives that read and feel ultimately twinned... in most of the stories the reader must try to...

The Washington Post turned their book pages over to poetry yesterday and The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010 was the star. Calling her works “small, precise, and chiseled,” the review aptly notes the synonymy between the personal and the political in Ms. Clifton’s poetry, as well as the complexity and intelligence thriving beneath a guise of simplicity. While her poetry is often associated with the African American experience, The Washington Post calls that characterization “limiting and unfair,” claiming that her later works extend “beyond the interests or history of any particular cultural community.” Instead, her innovative poetry seeks to...

If you've been anywhere near a television, computer, magazine stand, radio, or have stepped outside your house within the past month, it's probable that you've been exposed to the Olympic fever. One of the greatest examples of international cooperation and achievement, the Olympics are a true testament to human accomplishment. (It also doesn't hurt that they're so darn exciting to watch!) In the era of superstar-athletes and tweet-worthy national rivalries, there is also a creative ancient Olympic tradition that has, to some extent, fallen by the wayside; it is a tradition of poetry walking hand-in-hand with Olympic sport. This year,...