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Biography

Cynthia Dewi Oka is the author of A Tinderbox in Three Acts (2022) from BOA Editions, Fire Is Not a Country (2021) and Salvage (2017) from Northwestern University Press, and Nomad of Salt and Hard Water (2016) from Thread Makes Blanket Press. A recipient of the Amy Clampitt Residency, Tupelo Quarterly Poetry Prize, and the Leeway Transformation Award, her writing appears in The Atlantic, POETRY, Academy of American Poets, Poetry Society of America, Hyperallergic, Guernica, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. Her experimental poem, Future Revisions, was exhibited at the Rail Park billboard in Philadelphia in summer 2021. An alumnus of the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers, she has taught creative writing at Bryn Mawr College, New Mexico State University and Voices of Our Nations (VONA). She is originally from Bali, Indonesia. 

Books by Cynthia Dewi Oka

Authors · Featured

Michelle Phương Hồ

Michelle Phương Hồ is the author of Bone Symphony (Boa Editions, 2026), chosen by Aracelis Girmay as a Blessing the Boats Selection. Her work…

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Book Bundles · Featured

Fall Book Bundle

Welcome Fall Book Bundlers! With this purchase you will receive a box with all titles from Boa's current fall season along with a few…

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Boa Book Lovers Subscription

Subscribe and save on all forthcoming Boa titles within the calendar year! At the start of each season (every 6 months), subscribers will receive…

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Fiction · Featured

This New and Poisonous Air

     She admits she is pleased when the new placard is raised, “Madame Tussaud’s House of Wax.” She stands in the crowd with François at…

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New Release · Featured

I Am Trying to Love the Whole World

In her lyrical fifth collection, I Am Trying to Love the Whole World, Jenny Browne fearlessly holds grief without sentimentality and beauty without denial. For nearly…

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Nonfiction · Featured

Permanent Exhibit

Matthew Vollmer opens a browser window into his own mind with these collage-style essays. Exercising a rapacious intellectual curiosity, he seamlessly integrates flying snakes,…

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Poetry · Featured

Book of My Nights

WINNER OF THE WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS AWARD“Our bodies look solid, but they aren't. We're like a fountain. A fountain of water looks solid, but…

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Rare and Signed · Featured

Postcards from the Interior

Postcards from the Interior is a collection of postcard poems written from different geographical locations and varied states of heart and mind. The first section,…

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Translations · Featured

Beings and Things on Their Own

The recipient of the 1985 Greek National Poetry Award for the Greek version of Beings and Things on Their Own, Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke is the author…

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