BOA Blog

Remnants of Another Age, a translated book of poems by Macedonian writer Nikola Madzirov, recently recieved keen praise from Mike Walker of Tottenville Review. A difficult language to access - let alone translate for publication - Madzirov's Macedonian tongue is considered a "rare treat" in literature, and Walker recognizes the risks taken in (as well as the dire necessity for) publishing such a work. Walker clearly has a profound connection to the book and an adept understanding of the poems within it. He comments on the advantage of Madzirov's age - being that he is wonderfully balanced between the past struggles of Communist rule and the difficult time of transition "from Soviet...

  Travis Smith's review of Ennui Prophet, a BOA publication, in The Carolina Quarterly emphasizes Kennedy's dark humor and eye for the surreal image, which make his poems enjoyable to read. Smith also connects Kennedy to Baudelaire, making several references throughout the review. The review states, "Kennedy has clearly studied up on his Spleen. Like Baudelaire, Kennedy's depressed speakers often find themselves yearning for other realities, to see the world with a renewed sense of enchantment." Christopher Kennedy is currently the Director of the M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing at Syracuse University. He has published various collections of poetry. His writing has...

Gather 'round readers, BOA poet Wyn Cooper has been featured on Slate.com this week! The website has posted Cooper's poem, "Movement," along with an audio clip of him reading it. This is a real treat considering that his poems, stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in Poetry, Ploughshares, The Southern Review, CrazyHorse, and more than 75 other magazines. The man can write! So click here and check it out, come back, post a comment, and tell us what you think! Also, Cooper has recently released a collection of sonnets, Chaos is the New Calm, which you should also check out by clicking here

For the past year, BOA has been waging a guerilla poetry campaign around our home city of Rochester, NY. We've "popped up" at art galleries, the public market, inside stores and on the street. The idea is simple - go where people are congregating, stand up and proudly read a BOA poem. The campaign continued last weekend with BOA board member Jonathan Everitt and BOA marketing/production manager Al Abonado reading poems from Selected Poems by BOA founder Al Poulin at the opening of an exhibit of Robert Marx paintings at Rochester Contemporary Art Center. Don't adjust your computer (or your...

Jillian Weise Wins the Isabella Gardner Poetry Award Rochester, NY—Jillian Weise has been awarded the Isabella Gardner Poetry Award for her new collection, The Book of Goodbyes. Her book will be published by BOA Editions in fall 2013. This award is given biennially to a poet with a new book of exceptional merit. Manuscripts are solicited and there is no formal submission process for this award. Poet, actress, and associate editor of Poetry magazine, Isabella Gardner (1915-1981) published five celebrated collections of poetry and was the first recipient of the New York State Walt Whitman Citation of Merit for Poetry....