BOA Blog

Luther Hughes is the author of A Shiver in the Leaves, which was published by BOA Editions on September 27, 2022. A Shiver in the Leaves explores the interior and exterior symbiosis of a gay Black man finding refuge from the threat of depression and death through love and desire. Learn more about Luther and his work through this exclusive self-interview! A Shiver in the Leaves wrestles with a lot of different obsessions like Blackness, depression, Seattle, trees—to name a few. Of these obsessions, crows seem to be the staple of the book, insomuch the opening poem is about a painting of crows by Jean-Michel Basquiat. Where did this obsession with...

Rochester, N.Y. —BOA Editions, Ltd. is pleased to announce that Amy Lee Lillard of Des Moines, Iowa is the winner of the twelfth annual BOA Short Fiction Prize for her collection Exile in Guyville. BOA Publisher Peter Conners selected the winning manuscript. “Amy Lee Lillard’s Exile in Guyville hits with the impact of a scorching punk rock song. It’s smart, funny, intriguing, a little scary at parts, and thoroughly bold from start to finish. Frankly, it’s one of the most badass story collections I’ve ever read,” said Conners. Lillard will receive a $1,000 honorarium and book publication by BOA Editions,...

Chen Chen is the author of Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency, which was published by BOA Editions on September 13, 2022. In his highly anticipated second collection, Chen continues his investigation of family, both blood and chosen, examining what one inherits and what one invents, as a queer Asian American living through an era of Trump, mass shootings, and the COVID-19 pandemic.  Read on to learn more about Chen and his new poetry collection in this exclusive self-interview!   This is your second book. What makes it different from your first? I think it’s at once more mature and sillier—there’s more grief and rage...

As Pride Month comes to a close, this is a great opportunity to support LGBTQIA+ authors by preordering their forthcoming books! Below you’ll find poetry previews from our forthcoming fall 2022 titles and a brief look at some of our spring 2023 and fall 2023 collections!  Coming this fall:  "A Favorite Room" from Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency by Chen Chen Down the sideways face, through the dilapidated waterfall,we entered late afternoon’s house& a favorite room: the room of the butterfly skeleton. Intricate, delicate, somehow not an ounce of tragic.So beautiful we thought we could have perfectunswollen gums, be less predictablegay...

Rochester, N.Y. — We are thrilled to announce that acclaimed poet Tina Chang will judge the 22nd annual A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize, which will open for submissions on August 1! Tina Chang, Brooklyn Poet Laureate, is the author of Half-Lit Houses (2004), Of Gods & Strangers (2011), and most recently Hybrida (2019) which was named A Most Anticipated Book of 2019 by NPR, Lit Hub, The Millions, Oprah magazine, Publisher’s Weekly, and was named a New York Times Book Review New & Noteworthy collection. She is also the co-editor of the W.W. Norton anthology Language for a New Century:...