BOA Blog

Geffrey Davis' poem "What I Mean When I Say Chinook Salmon," from Revising the Storm, was selected by Natasha Trethewey as this week's Featured Poem for The New York Times Magazine!According to Natasha Trethewey, the former U.S. Poet Laureate, "The poet Robert Hass wrote, 'A word is elegy to what it signifies,' a reminder that the language of a poem can be an act of memorialization. Here, the words that name an ordinary thing contain a world of experience for the speaker, evoking not only a sense of loss but also of longing."What I Mean When I Say Chinook SalmonBy...

        The San Francisco Chronicle and the Paris Review have each released "Best of 2015" lists, both featuring BOA collections!The San Francisco Chronicle chose only five poetry collections for its list, among them Nickole Brown's Fanny Says. "Brown's interest in Kentucky speech sounds, and the many speeds in her free verse--from rapid fire to syrupy-slow--fit the unfolding of her grandmother Fanny's life."The Paris Review asked contributors to pick their top books of 2015. Writer Chris Bachelder selected Robin McLean's short story collection, Reptile House.He writes: "There is no shortage of mayhem and menace in these stories, but they achieve a thrilling...

For the "Contributor’s Marginalia" section of 32 Poems, poet Zeina Hashem Beck offers her reading of Ricky Bursky's poem "This is Yours" from I'm No Longer Troubled by the Extravagance.Praising Bursky's verse, Beck claims that this poem "immediately flirts with and involves you, the reader. And what is it, you find yourself asking, that the poem’s speaker is about to offer you? The truth, and lies, and it doesn’t matter which."The review continues: "Now I don’t know about you, but a love poem that starts with blurring the lines between reality and illusion has already won me over...The beauty of this poem partly...

In a recent PBS Newshour video story, legendary actor and comedian Bill Murray reads Lucille Clifton's poem "what the mirror said" at a Poets House benefit. Also in the video, Murray discusses the power of the poem, and the importance of poetry in his life.“Bill Murray loves poetry," says PBS. "He loves poetry so much he trades comedic one-liners for lines of poetry at a yearly benefit for Poets House, a nonprofit library and cultural center in New York City.”Of Clifton’s poem, Murray says: “I used to be able to look in the mirror and see who’s there, and sometimes...

Poker News Daily has placed James McManus' The Education of a Poker Player on its list of poker-related stocking stuffers! With the holiday season well upon us, reviewer Earl Burton suggests "a couple of books out there that might interest the poker fan in a person’s life."Calling Education "whimsical," Burton says: "author James McManus – the author of the seminal poker work Positively Fifth Street – has stepped back into the literary world, but not exactly with something that is entirely poker-related. While it is titled The Education of a Poker Player, McManus’ book is more a coming-of-age story rather than a...