BOA Blog

The Academy of American Poets recently reviewed G.C. Waldrep's new collection Testament, offering high praise and a proverbial thumbs up to the poet's language and style. "Capitalism, notions of gender, and language itself are critiqued and examined throughout . . . Erudite and glittering, Waldrep’s language consists of Ashberian non sequiturs that are sonically lush and often nature-related." In this book-length poem, Waldrep addresses matters as diverse as Mormonism, cymatics, race, Dolly the cloned sheep, and his own life and faith. Drafted over twelve trance-like days while in residence at Hawthornden Castle, Waldrep responds to such poets as Alice Notley, Lisa Robertson, and...

Publishers Weekly recently reviewed BOA's new translation Smugglers, with poems by Aleš Debeljak, translated from the Slovenian by Brian Henry. "Debeljak’s insistence on formal consistency, humor, and adherence to his subject, along with translator Henry’s efforts at retaining his syntactical and cultural idiosyncrasies, put the personal, and traditional, experience of those historical events at the forefront of this collection. A troubled national history and the continuing traumas of a young nation may well strike readers as the heart of the collection." The review continues, "Set in various locations around his home city, Ljubljana, this series of tonally folksy, yet formally rigid,...

Reviewer Madeleine Kruhley offers high praise for The Secret of Hoa Sen, written by Nguyen Phan Que Mai and translated by the author and Bruce Weigl, in a recent review by the Los Angeles Review of Books. Kruhley endorses Mai's ability to maintain a sense of confidence among the shadow of situation: "While there are dark, gritty elements at play, Que Mai’s work does not lose itself to despair. She crafts subtleties in sentiment without being overly sentimental." This collection of poems is riddled with honest moments, illustrating the intimacy associated with cultural elements of Vietnam, whose "secrets are intrinsic to...

BOA Editions' recent release Why God Is a Woman, by Nin Andrews, is receiving high praise in a recent review from Fourth & Sycamore. "Rather than floating the idea down the central current of gender reversal, she forays into side channels, exploring ideas of religion and spirituality, love in the context of power imbalance, puberty and sexual innocence, colonialism, celebrity, empathy. Just when you feel the book has settled into a pattern or rhythm, a strange anomaly confronts you on the next page, a poem that does not carry the flag of the book’s theme but runs in a different...

In a recent NewPages review, Benjamin Champagne dives head first into Nickole Brown's Fanny Says, finding laughs, darkness, and depth that only poignant family memories can provide. "[Fanny Says] is a dense work of poems," says the review, "functioning as a memoir and a history lesson by way of the comedian. Brown is always tender but does not shy from exposing faults and social problems. Her ability to record and recreate the things her grandmother said is a prowess far beyond her. The reader is so immersed in Fanny it is as if we know her. Getting to know Fanny...