BOA Blog

It has been a great week for BOA: Publishers Weekly has printed no fewer than three poetry reviews on some of our most recent books. Aracelis Girmay's Kingdom Animalia and Michael Waters' Gospel Night receive spot-on responses. We are very happy to share that The Hands of Strangers: Poems from the Nursing Home by Janice N. Harrington has a starred review containing such comments as: "Both attendants and patients emerge as humans, as people with tough tasks and inner lives, in these pellucid, scary, morally resonant poems." So too did Kingdom Animalia get the spotlight. It is almost as if...

The Poetry Foundation maintains a list of "bestsellers" in the poetry world. Naomi Shihab Nye's new book Transfer debuted there at #13 and quickly scooted up to #6. So what does it all mean? Well, it means a bunch of people are discovering what an amazing new book Naomi has just published. We humbly recommend you check it out too...  Transfer, as well as more information about the book and Naomi Shihab Nye can be found in the BOA bookstore.

On September 18, 2011 BOA held our annual Dine & Rhyme celebration at the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, NY. Those who were fortunate enough to attend were treated to an astonishing, wide-ranging poetry reading by BOA poets Keetje Kuipers, Aracelis Girmay, and Michael Waters. We're pleased to announce that those readings in the entirety are now posted on BOA's YouTube page:  2011 Dine & Rhyme videos  Whether your re-living that magical night or seeing it for the first time, these are share-worthy videos of three diverse and dynamic poets. Enjoy! [caption id="attachment_1485" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Keetje Kuipers unwinding after her...

Mike Walker of Coal Hill Review argues that while the subject matter of Naomi Shihab Nye’s Transfer is a common topic of discussion, Nye somehow manages to make her collection of poems the most intimate conversation in the room. In Transfer, Nye draws on her Palestinian-American heritage without ever getting swallowed up by the current state of politics, or even just our expectations of the Middle East as Americans. Walker explains that as Americans, we are fully aware of the Middle East and the questions at hand, “but too often we get the same images over and over again, and...

This year, the National Endowment for the Arts awarded Creative Writing Fellowships in poetry. We're proud to say that four BOA authors were included among the 2011 recipients; Richard Foerster, Aracelis Girmay, Christopher Kennedy, and Celcilia Woloch. The National Endowment for the Arts was established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. To date, the NEA has awarded more than $4 billion to support artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation for the benefit of individuals and communities. The NEA extends its work through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic...