Recent Blog Posts
PW gives BLACK MARIA starred review
Aracelis Girmay's new collection the black maria just received a new starred review from Publishers Weekly, which calls the book a "collection of lyrical, image-thick poems that balance on the knife edge separating vulnerability and unapologetic strength."Deep, connecting, and sharp in its analysis, the review continues: "The lives of Eritrean refugees and immigrants serve as the collection’s thematic foundation, though Girmay also thoughtfully dissects and examines blights of America’s current sociopolitical climate, particularly police brutality and the murders of such young black women and men as Renisha McBride and Jonathan Ferrell. . . . Girmay effortlessly slips between collective history...
Huff Post names Erika Meitner a 'brilliant' woman poet
Huffington Post has selected Erika Meitner as one of "14 brilliant women poets to read on World Poetry Day," which is today -- March 21.Erika Meitner is the author of Copia, released by BOA in 2014."Monday is World Poetry Day, a great time to reacquaint yourself with your favorite lines of verse before Poetry Month kicks off on April 1. Whether you're a budding Bard or a naysayer, you'd do well to know a few of the poets who are writing great work today. [These] are our favorite women poets working today, in honor of Women's History Month."Reading one of...
Bursky on poetry, talent, and artichokes
In a new interview with Pine Hills Review, Rick Bursky talks about a number of different topics, from what motivates his writing to the number of fountain pens he owns, and the way artichokes mate for life. The interview is funny, informative, fascinating, and eye-opening.Pine Hills Review says, "As far as I can tell, Rick Bursky has done just about everything. No, really. This is a man who has almost as many scuba dives to his name as he does published poems (that would be 190 scuba dives versus 231 published poems, at last count). In case you’re feeling unaccomplished...
Oprah Magazine features three BOA poets
Three amazing BOA poets are featured in the April 2016 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine.Aracelis Girmay's new Spring 2016 poetry collection the black maria is called a "recently published gem of the genre" in the magazine's "Reading Room" section. According to O Magazine, "Her every loss—she calls them estrangements—is a yearning for connection across time and place; her every fragment is a bulwark against ruin.”Legendary actor and comedian Bill Murray chose poems by BOA poets Naomi Shihab Nye and Lucille Clifton as two of his favorites in honor of National Poetry Month.About Nye's poem "Famous," Murray says "It's not...
LA Review on ANTIDOTE FOR NIGHT
Marsha de la O's new collection Antidote for Night was recently featured in the Los Angeles Review.The review focuses on the construction of de la O’s poetry, which often strays from normalcy: "Faithful to the advice of Robert Bly, that early translator of the Spanish-language surrealists and advocate of 'leaping poetry,' de la O braids narrative, weaving rhythm and melody into un-ravel-able wholes. 'Whistle Keeps on Blowing,' a meditation on the life and art of jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong, begins in the middle, jumps to the end, circles back to the beginning, and then returns to the middle, that apotheosis of...