BOA Editions is pleased to announce that it has received a $10,000 grant from the Amazon Literary Partnership Poetry Fund and the Academy of American Poets. This grant will support the publication of a new collection of poetry from BOA Editions by a woman of color in spring 2020.
“We are thrilled and heartened to receive this new support from the Amazon Literary Partnership Program and The Academy of American Poets,” said Peter Conners, Publisher of BOA Editions. “For 43 years, BOA has been committed to publishing poetry that will have a lasting cultural impact. This grant bolsters that mission by providing additional funds to publish and promote a new poetry collection entitled Year of the Dog by first-time BOA author Deborah Paredez. I can’t imagine a worthier recipient or a more worthwhile collection.”
Deborah Paredez’s Year of the Dog is a volume of documentary poetry that offers a Latina chronicle of the Vietnam era. The collection presents first-person poems from Paredez’s perspective as the daughter of a Mexican immigrant Vietnam veteran, along with poems about and in the personas of other historical and mythic women responding to Vietnam and other forms of domestic and international warfare – as warriors, widows, antiwar activists, and witnesses of violence. Paredez is co-founder and co-director of CantoMundo, a national organization for Latinx poets, and a professor of creative writing and ethnic studies at Columbia University. Her poetry and essays have appeared in such places as The New York Times, Boston Review, Poetry, and Los Angeles Review of Books. Year of the Dog will be published by BOA in April 2020.
BOA is one of five literary presses to receive support through the inaugural Amazon Literary Partnership Poetry Fund. The Poetry Fund was created in 2019 by the Academy of American Poets through a $120,000 grant from the Amazon Literary Partnership to support poetry organizations and presses that specialize in poetry. The Poetry Fund awarded grants to thirteen nonprofit literary organizations in 2019.
“The Amazon Literary Partnership’s goal has been to support organizations that are vital to sustaining the literary culture of their communities,” said Neal Thompson, Manager of the Amazon Literary Partnership. “By funding organizations working to uplift the voices of underrepresented writers, we hope to champion the writers, poets, and translators of the world we live in now. We are thrilled to be working with the Academy of American Poets to reach organizations committed to supporting poets and upcoming writers.”
About the Amazon Literary Partnership
Since 2009, the Amazon Literary Partnership has awarded more than $12 million in grant funding to more than 150 literary organizations, with a particular focus on supporting a diversity of voices. Grant recipients include nonprofit writing centers, residencies, fellowships, after-school classes, literary magazines, national organizations supporting storytelling and free speech, and internationally acclaimed publishers of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. More information about Amazon Literary Partnership can be found at amazonliterarypartnership.com.
About the Academy of American Poets
Founded in 1934 in New York City, the Academy of American Poets is the nation's largest membership-based nonprofit organization advocating for American poets and poetry. Its mission is to support American poets at all stages of their careers and to foster the appreciation of contemporary poetry. More information about the Academy of American Poets can be found at poets.org/academy-american-poets/about-us.
About BOA Editions
BOA Editions, Ltd. is a nationally acclaimed not-for-profit independent publisher of contemporary poetry and literary fiction. Founded in 1976 by A. Poulin, Jr. to provide a publishing venue for both new and established poets, BOA has released more than 300 titles, including more than two dozen books of poetry-in-translation. Many BOA titles and authors have been recognized with literary awards, including the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. For more information about BOA Editions, visit boaeditions.org/about.
