BOA Blog

The first thing I notice about Chaun Ballard’s Second Nature is how formally ambitious it is—the first poem, “A Poem Ending with a Strambotto wherein I Include an Extra Line That Is Myself or A Poem in which I Name the Flower,” shows that this is a collection that will not hold back, both in subject matter and in structure, packing each poem with evocative phrases housed in thoughtfully constructed lines.

Girmay’s language makes us feel like a child again, learning about death as if for the first time. Her writing is benedictive; it blesses us and forgives us, it reminds us that we are living and breathing and alive. One of the most shocking moments from this collection is in the poem “Your Words Again”, in which Girmay incorporates a diagram with the words ‘Dead’ and ‘Alive’ on opposing sides of a dotted line. Something about seeing this visual representation is startling, but her words bring to it a beautiful catharsis, narrating the experience of death as being carried over this line in a chair. 

When the comfort of human connection falls short in a world that feels increasingly disconnected, Austin alerts us to the pleasure of music, language, and even, uniquely, fashion. One of my favorite poems in this collection is Ode on Symone’s Do-rag, in which he writes “I am yards of blue satin.” Not only is this comparison almost eerily lovely, but it proves Austin’s lyrical mastery by reversing the mechanisms in the commonly used literary machine of personification.

Splashed Things by Leigh Lucas is a raw, intimate poetry collection that follows the speaker’s journey through grief following the suicide of her ex-boyfriend. With striking candor, the speaker allows readers to step into her grieving mind, laying bare her journey to healing. 

Charles Rafferty is the author of 14 poetry books and chapbooks, most recently The Appendectomy Grin (BOA, 2025), A Cluster of Noisy Planets (BOA, 2021), The Problem With Abundance (Grayson Books, 2019) Something an Atheist Might Bring Up at a Cocktail Party (Mayapple Press, 2018), and The Smoke of Horses (BOA Editions, 2017). His stories have been collected in Saturday Night at Magellan’s (Fomite Press, 2013) and Somebody Who Knows Somebody (Gold Wake Press, 2021). His poems have appeared in Gettysburg Review; The New Yorker; O, The Oprah Magazine; Ploughshares; Prairie Schooner; Rhino; and The Southern Review. He has received grants...