Recent Blog Posts
Plume calls THE BLACK MARIA 'ambitious in both form and sweep'
Plume reviews editor Adam Tavel just released a new review of Aracelis Girmay's the black maria, calling the collection "ambitious in both form and sweep."Tavel compares the collection to "the experimental reach of Charles Olson, the syntactic inventiveness of Marianne Moore, and the historical engagement of Robert Hayden," as it "simultaneously mourns the vile legacy of African slavery while celebrating the dignified endurance of the African diaspora."According to the review, "Girmay proves herself a distinctly original lyric voice . . . the black maria elegizes the dehumanizing effects of colonialism and institutionalized racism, yet champions the documentary power of language to...
Boston Review calls THE BLACK MARIA a 'poeticized eulogy'
Boston Review included Aracelis Girmay's the black maria in its "Fall Poetry Reading" feature, with a thorough review by Cassandra Balzer. Calling Girmay "a poet of both physical and metaphysical loss," the review notes the collection's mission of "[synthesizing] accounts of the Eritrean diaspora in order to understand place and experience in the 21st century."According to the review, "Girmay fastens herself to the idea of water—its power to both unify and alienate—as a vehicle for exploring loss, ancestry, and identity. The title, taken from a term for lunar 'maria'—the moon’s dark plains once thought to be seas—provides the imagistic thrust of...
BUST calls THE BOOK OF GOODBYES 'gloriously sassy'
BUST Magazine published a rave new review of Jillian Weise's The Book of Goodbyes in its latest issue, as part of its feature "Amber Tamblyn's Poetry Corner."In a glowing assessment of the collection, reviewer Tamblyn says: "If you haven’t read The Book of Goodbyes (BOA Editions) by Jillian Weise, get thee to a slinger of literature, STAT. The theme of this gloriously sassy and direct collection is strength—inward and outward, metaphysical and metaphorical. There’s no victimization in Weise’s writing, only observational wit about the crippled world that surrounds her. . . . Weise is a BUST kind of girl: fearless, flawed, and oh so...
MANDATORY EVACUATION a 'November 2016 Exemplar'
Peter Makuck's new poetry collection, Mandatory Evacuation, has been named a "November 2016 Exemplar" by Grace Cavalieri of the Washington Independent Review of Books. According to Cavalieri, "Makuck writes as if the world is a sacred ground worth recording into poetry. His work respects nature and relationships; and if these were the last words left in his heart he could be proud. In Buddhism, the path is said to be, among other, things right speech, right action; and we could complete the precepts by saying right art because if you follow the thread through all the systems in this complex tapestry of people places things, the guiding...
On the Seawall: Poets recommend BOA titles
Aracelis Girmay's the black maria and Kathryn Nuernberger's The End of Pink are included in On the Seawall's semi-annual feature "Nine Poets Recommend New & Recent Titles," for which highly acclaimed poets write briefly on some of their favorite recently published titles.Poet Safiya Sinclair recommends the black maria, calling the collection “astounding” and “incredible.” She says: “Girmay’s poetry entrances with breathless beauty as she carefully traces the sea’s dark history from 1702 to 2015, addressing the anguish of the African diaspora in a long cycle of poems called elelegy . . . The book’s titular second section conjoins this past violence with the...