BOA Blog

April is National Poetry Month, and BOA Editions has partnered with Rochester public radio WXXI to celebrate with a special series of "Poetry Moments" -- BOA poems being read by dear BOA friends, staff, and board members. These WXXI / BOA Poetry Moments include selections from such BOA poets as Lucille Clifton, Li-Young Lee, Naomi Shihab Nye, Aracelis Girmay, and many others. They will be broadcast daily at 9:43AM and 2:38PM EST on AM 1370; and at 9:20AM and 4:30PM EST on WXXI Classical 91.5. Tune in, or listen to the audio recordings here.Here's a full list of poems being read on-air this month:"Theater" by...

We are pleased to announce that Marcelo Hernandez Castillo is the winner of the 16th annual A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize for his collection Cenzontle. Castillo will receive a $1,500 honorarium and book publication by BOA Editions in spring 2018. Contest judge and esteemed poet Brenda Shaughnessy selected Cenzontle from a pool of more than 300 submissions. The runner-up, also selected by Shaughnessy, is Fieldglass by Catherine Pond.Of the winning collection, Shaughnessy says, “Marcelo Hernandez Castillo can distill great complex states of being into clear, piercing lines of breathtaking beauty. In this artist’s hands, a straightforward truth or observation blossoms...

My manuscript almost never made it in the mail. The day of the BOA Short Fiction Prize postmark deadline my printer ran out of ink. I raced to the university library, only to have that printer jam halfway through. Naturally, just as I was ripping pages from the machine, my son conveniently decided to pee his pants. Do I need to add he tried to clean it up with pages from the botched manuscript? I might have screamed Serenity now! believing this was not real life but some Seinfeld sketch. We eventually made it to the post office, then went home where I promptly...

April is National Poetry Month, and literary journals everywhere are releasing their must-read poetry lists for the occasion. Just this week, Craig Morgan Teicher's The Trembling Answers and Chen Chen's When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities made Literary Hub's list of "13 New Poetry Collections to Read During National Poetry Month." When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities also made Bustle's list of "15 New Poetry Collections to Read During National Poetry Month." Of The Trembling Answers, Literary Hub says, "Teicher’s poems are largely confessional and autobiographical, and The Trembling Answers is no exception; this particular volume deals with explorations...

We are proud to announce that BOA Editions has been selected to receive Writers & Books’s 2017 "Big Pencil Award," which is given to an organization that “has made significant contributions to the Rochester literary community.”The award is one of nine that will be presented to individuals and organizations that have contributed significantly to the advancement, creation, and greater appreciation of literature in the Rochester community. Writers & Books is a literary center based in Rochester, NY, that fosters and promotes reading and writing as lifelong activities. Attracting individuals of all ages and backgrounds within and beyond the greater Rochester area,...