BOA Blog

[caption id="attachment_1038" align="aligncenter" width="241" caption="Barbara Jane Reyes. BOA Poet. Photo by Peter Dressel."][/caption] In Craig Santos Perez's recent interview,  Barbara Jane Reyes, author of Diwata,  discusses with her trademark candor and precision the origins of her poems, her relationship with the traditions of story-telling, and her ever expanding vision of poetry. The interview begins with an exploration of Barbara's cultural concerns in which she acknowledges that she is "always looking for someone other than [herself] to 'tell the story,' or to be the speaker," exploring those stories "within the context of these larger cultural and historical narratives." The scope of...

The literary blog We Who Are About to Die not only sports one of the best titles in lit blogdom, but they have good taste too. Witness this excerpt from Michael Costello's review of Ennui Prophet by Christopher Kennedy: "Not only is Ennui Prophet a bastion of cool, it is a true pleasure of craft and originality. Christopher Kennedy writes a world at turns emotionally haunting, descriptively vibrant,  and at times the literary equivalent of an unnerving smirk. There is an uneasiness about and an anxious thread stitching together line to line, poem to poem. These are the surreal scenarios of a...

Karen Schubert  recently published an essay to Gently Read Literature's online blog of essays and criticism of poetry and literary fiction on Nin Andrews' books of poetry.  The essay is entitled " 'Everything Stuck to Her Skin': Considerations of Gender in the Poetry of Nin Andrews" and it focuses on and highlights Andrews' attention to female place in culture. "Andrews writes as an insider;" Schubert says, "that is, she writes through the female body, through the persona of a girl evaluating cultural messages, and through a woman in relationship as daughter, mother, lover, wife."  Schubert explores the "broader female themes"...

[caption id="attachment_1205" align="aligncenter" width="200" caption="Ennui Prophet, prose poems by Christopher Kennedy"][/caption]   Ennui Prophet, the forthcoming collection of prose poetry by BOA Editions poet Christopher Kennedy, puts its emphasis on experiencing the written word itself, according to poet and critic Kenny Tanemura, of the Sycamore Review. Kennedy's prose poetry is marked by motion-- according to Tanemura, his shorter poems are "fluid," "dexetrous," and "graceful." He also says: "Left-handed guitarists, a swarm of bees, a Buddhist monk, Rasputin, Cantonese, and the F.B.I. all make cameo appearances in this collection, both in and out of context. This approach is not unlike a...

Publishers Weekly has published a wonderful profile of BOA Editions in honor of our 35th anniversary. It's truly a tribute to all the authors, staff, board and supporters who have kept BOA Editions a leading indie press for all these years. Here's an excerpt from the article: "For 35 years, the nonprofit poetry publisher BOA Editions has been a national force, releasing work from heavyweights like Li-Young Lee, Lucille Clifton, and Michael Waters, as well as up-and-comers like Keetje Kuipers and Janice N. Harrington. When poet/editor/translator A. Poulin Jr. founded BOA Editions in 1976, the publishing landscape had little room for...