Three amazing BOA poets are featured in the April 2016 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine.

Aracelis Girmay's new Spring 2016 poetry collection the black maria is called a "recently published gem of the genre" in the magazine's "Reading Room" section. According to O Magazine, "Her every loss—she calls them estrangements—is a yearning for connection across time and place; her every fragment is a bulwark against ruin.”

Legendary actor and comedian Bill Murray chose poems by BOA poets Naomi Shihab Nye and Lucille Clifton as two of his favorites in honor of National Poetry Month.

About Nye's poem "Famous," Murray says "It's not the dream of being big, it's the dream of being real. That's what stands out to me." About Clifton's poem "What the Mirror Said," he says, "Everbody needs an 'Attagirl!' now and then."

April is National Poetry Month, and to honor the occasion, O Magazine says, "Like songs, poems convey what ordinary words cannot. How a rhythm can call you home again. The way light falling in a room can become a meditation on aging. Poems can ring out in grief or declare undying love. They can be personal; they can be political. They can save us. As ancient a form as poetry is, we continue to reinvent it. And it continues to remind us of our kinship—with one another, with all things. National Poetry Month gives us a chance to celebrate the form by sharing some of our favorite verse—new and old—with the help of a few surprise guests. Testimony that poetry still rocks, its body still electric."

the black maria is available for pre-order now from the BOA Bookstore. Get your copy before the April publication date!