Recent Blog Posts
Constant Critic calls TROUBLE THE WATER a book that moves 'profoundly'
In a rich and thorough new review from The Constant Critic, reviewer Ray McDaniel calls Derrick Austin’s A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize-winning Trouble the Water "the book of poetry that moved me the most profoundly in 2016."He says, "While much of that power derives from its effortless and unapologetic beauty, it moves me mainly by virtue of being sad. Sadness, too, is one of those things that remains meaningful even when its more elaborated or elevated forms eclipse that core: grief, mourning, despair. . . . Austin’s poems are bounded by conditions of extremity, but unfold, with delicacy and in repose, between those...
PW gives THE TREMBLING ANSWERS starred review
A new *starred* review from Publishers Weekly is calling Craig Morgan Teicher's The Trembling Answers an "affecting examination of the trade-offs that parenthood, adulthood, and art require."With poems that are "perceptive, tender" and "open," Teicher documents his "mortal responsibilities," while also offering a "chance to escape them." Many of his poems also focus on the actual craft of poetry, offering "genuine insight on verse as a vocation."The review concludes, "This is a modest book, but also a rare, undeceived one. It offers only what it can, which may be all that poetry can hope to: small joys and hard-won wisdom."Click here to...
PBS Newshour on poetry about 'growing up black in America'
A new article from PBS Newshour, entitled "Two fathers use poems to teach their kids about growing up black in America," features BOA poet Geffrey Davis (Revising the Storm, 2014) and poet F. Douglas Brown. Reporter Elizabeth Flock comments on how the two, through the poetry they write together, "explore with tenderness and anxiety the joys and perils of being a father—especially a black father—and how to escape the mistakes of past generations."Known for his poetry on fatherhood in particular, Davis's work burrows under the surface of gender, addiction, recovery, clumsy love, bitterness, and faith. The tones explored in his A. Poulin, Jr....
CHEN CHEN included in NPR Books's 2017 Poetry Preview
Chen Chen's A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize-winning collection, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities, was included on NPR Books's list of "Poetry To Pay Attention To: A Preview Of 2017's Best Verse."According to poet and reviewer Craig Morgan Teicher, "America's greatest triumph is its diversity: the multiplicity of peoples, identities, and voices all gathered and vitally alive in one country. Nothing attests to this diversity more profoundly than American poetry, which elevates those voices to song. At its best, our poetry refutes hate, represents and finds harmony in difference, counters generality with nuance, and...
Poems in honor of Black History Month
The Academy of American Poets recently put together a reading list for Black History Month, after asking a group of contemporary black poets to share poems they think are essential reading for the month. Lucille Clifton's "won't you celebrate with me," from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010 made the list of 12 poems, and is in truly incredible company. We love the list so much, we want to share the picks with you. Visit Poets.org to read more about them.“We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks“won’t you celebrate with me” by Lucille Clifton“Heartbeats” by Melvin Dixon“American History” by Michael S. Harper“Hurricane” by Yona Harvey“Middle Passage”...