BOA Blog

Read all of this season's offerings already?  Thumbed the pages of your most recent volume of poetry ragged?  Can't wait to see what BOA comes out with next? How about these three? Kingdom Animalia, Aracelis Girmay's second book of poetry, comes from some combination of several wonderful places, much as Girmay herself does. "In gorgeously clear and honest language, [she] explores the human geography of time and origin.... Kingdom Animalia enters the exquisite beauty of being alive and its sister, the terrible ache of loss. Here is a cosmic dialogue between the body and a universe," writes reviewer Ruth Irupé...

[caption id="attachment_1327" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Aracelis Girmay, BOA poet"][/caption] Kingdom Animalia, a collection of poetry by Aracelis Girmay, was chosen as the August selection for The Rumpus Poetry Book Club.  Camille T. Dungy reviewed Girmay's collection explaining why Kingdom Animalia is an excellent choice for this month's book. Dungy found Kingdom Animalia to be an invigorating work that "maps the world in which we live, classifying us, grouping us, reminding us of what sets us apart, and what ties us together."  The collection itself succeeds in demonstrating, examining, and revealing relationships.  The relationships that Girmay address range from people to animals,...

WBEZ 91.5 featured a review of Adam McOmber's short story collection, This New & Poisonous Air.  The review speaks highly of McOmber's work and his ability to blend "myths, fairy tales, and fables" into beautiful and intriguing stories.  McOmber uses a varied palette of time and history to create fresh and innovative characters, events, and pictures. These "intricate and provocative stories" are at once distinct and yet unified in their "timeless" quality.  McOmber has succeeded in creating a collection that is "laced with sorrow and mystery, beauty and compassion, insight and protest."  Further, "This New & Poisonous Air is exquisitely...

[caption id="attachment_1015" align="aligncenter" width="200" caption="Your Father on the Train of Ghosts. Poems by G.C. Waldrep and John Gallaher."][/caption] John Gallaher and G.C. Waldrep continue their candid and insightful discussion about the process of writing the poems for their collaborative book Your Father on the Train of Ghosts.  Written over a year, John Gallaher and G.C. Waldrep exchanged emails almost exclusively in the form of poems.  In this next part of the conversation, the two discuss the nature of address found in the poem, the use of the "You,"  the role of community in poetry, and the mysterious, haunting nature of...

[caption id="attachment_1015" align="aligncenter" width="200" caption="Your Father on the Train of Ghosts. Poems by G.C. Waldrep and John Gallaher."][/caption] After exchanging poems via email at a sometimes furious rate for a year, John Gallaher and G.C. Waldrep were left with the task of turning this abundance of poems into a more manageable manuscript.  In part three of a six part series, John Gallaher and G.C. Waldrep return to discuss the collaborative effort involved in shaping Your Father on the Train of Ghosts into a cohesive collection that remained true to the spirit of writing the poems. You can read earlier parts...