BOA Blog

Heavy Feather Review recently gave Marsha de la O’s Antidote for Night a glowing review, focusing particularly on the "precarious and vulnerable nightscapes . . . where [de la O] slips her scalpel beneath the slippery patinas of Southern California, flaying away media exaggerations to reveal the beauty and the bestial.”The review discusses in depth the style of Antidote for Night as a whole by citing the rage, generosity, love, anguish, and compassion that characterize the book.According to reviewer Sandra Hunter, "Antidote for Night contains the pain and random savagery, the searing beauty of the external and internal world, the endurance...

Don Share, editor-in-chief of Poetry magazine, recently selected Richard Garcia’s The Chair as a "Best Poetry Collection of 2015" for Literary Hub. Released by BOA in late 2014, the book is composed primarily of prose poetry.Share says: "It is a dire—and common—fate for a superb book of poems to be overlooked, especially in a year like this past one during which so many wonderful books garnered prizes, acclaim, and media attention. Less familiar, perhaps, is another misfortune: that of the book published late in the year. A fall or winter publication date will occlude the reputation of a fine book...

James McManus’ The Education of a Poker Player was selected as one of four "Best Fiction Picks from 2015" by Lauren Daley of South Coast Today, alongside such authors as Margaret Atwood, Lucia Berlin, and Paula Hawkins. According to Daley, "I’m not sure about the wine, but 2015 was a great year for books."McManus’ newest book delves into the world of an Irish-Catholic altar boy, Vincent Killeen, in the 1950s and '60s. Daley says, “If you were a middle-class Irish-Catholic altar boy in the 1950s and '60s, you will laugh reading this. Because I was not an Irish-Catholic altar boy...

      Publishers Weekly recently included Aracelis Girmay’s The Black Maria and Derrick Austin’s Trouble the Water in its Spring 2016 Announcements, placing The Black Maria in the #1 spot on its Poetry Top 10 list!Taking its name from the moon’s dark plains, misidentified as seas by early astronomers, The Black Maria investigates African diasporic histories, the consequences of racism within American culture, and the question of human identity. Central to this project is a desire to recognize the lives of Eritrean refugees who have been made invisible by years of immigration crisis, refugee status, exile, and resulting statelessness....

        Junot Díaz recently called Aracelis Girmay’s “Kingdom Animalia” his favorite poem in a New York Times Sunday Book Review feature. The list, entitled "What's Your Favorite Poem?," features a number of highly-acclaimed authors and public personas discussing their favorite poems, including broadcast journalist Katie Couric, actor Alan Cumming, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Díaz, novelist Stephen King, young adult author John Green, children’s author Mo Willems, actress Mary-Louise Parker, and This American Life host Ira Glass.Díaz says: "Girmay is one of my favorite poets. She blows across the islands of my soul like storm season. I remember rereading these...