BOA Blog

We are very sorry to announce that Melissa Hall, our Director of Development & Operations, will be leaving her position at the end of December. Mel has been an invaluable member of the BOA team over the past seven years, and we will greatly miss her as she moves on to pursue new goals.Mel has served the organization extremely well. It has been our good fortune to have her many skills, expertise, good judgment, and amazing multi-tasking abilities in our corner for so long. We have always appreciated the fact that she not only gets things done, but she gets...

West Virginia newspaper The Journal recently published a stunning review of Stephen Dobyns's new book, The Day's Last Light Reddens the Leaves of the Copper Beech. Reviewer Sonja James has nothing but praise for the collection, saying: "All of the poems are unflinchingly beautiful as Dobyns explores the transience of life on earth. These are poems for those who respect honesty. Dobyns is a poet who is true to the script God offers a fallen humanity."The review details the collection's reoccurring themes of mortality and death, especially in Part Two, "Sixteen Sonnets for Isabel." Here, Dobyns writes about the recent passing...

A few stories from Lee Upton's BOA Short Fiction Prize-winning collection The Tao of Humiliation were recently reviewed by Micheal Czyzniejewski of Story366. Czyzniejewski opens his review with a humorous anecdote of an experience he had with his son at the playground. He then segues to the review: "While I was there, not saving other people's kids from themselves, I read a few stories from Lee Upton's collection The Tao of Humiliation."Focusing mainly on the title story from the collection, the review describes the main character, Everett, who attends an all-male strength-building seminar as a result of finding his now former...

We are pleased to announce that Ryan Habermeyer is the winner of the sixth annual BOA Short Fiction Prize for his collection, The Science of Lost Futures! The collection was selected by Publisher Peter Conners from 147 submissions. Habermeyer will receive a $1,000 honorarium and book publication by BOA Editions, Ltd. within the American Reader Series in spring 2018.Of the collection, Peter Conners says: “Ryan Habermeyer is not only a gifted literary writer, but also a yarn spinner of the first order. How else to explain an author who can tell a compelling tale about a foot that mysteriously washes...

Story366's Michael Czyzniejewski details a fond connection between himself and James McManus, author of The Education of a Poker Player, in a wonderful new review."I was able to read a hefty story by James McManus from his collection The Education of a Poker Player, out from BOA Editions," he says. "I knew McManus by reputation, as he’s a bestselling author and a celebrity poker player . . . I found out that McManus was Catholic kid from the Chicago suburbs, just like me, and The Education of a Poker Player isn’t about learning poker (at least not early on), but about McManus...