BOA Blog

One week, 204 poets, over 50 languages, and 100,000 poems flurrying to the ground from above. No, this is not a scene from an ancient Greek epic... But that is the idea of this year's Poetry Parnassus, a massive poetry celebration established as part of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad in London, which is being called the biggest gathering of poets in world history. From more than 6,000 recommended poets, 204 have been chosen to represent their nations at Southbank Centre in London from Tuesday, June 26th-- Sunday, July 1st, in an event to re-establish the poetic heritage of the ancient...

This Sunday, June 24th, BOA authors Michael Waters and Aracelis Girmay will read their poetry as part of Drew University's MFA Poetry Reading Series! The series (June 21-27) will feature performances from 14 award-winning poets from around the nation and is free and open to the public-- an opportunity you won't want to miss! Waters and Girmay will read at 7:30 in Mead Hall at Drew University (NJ), along with poet Alicia Ostriker. Waters, author of ten collections of poetry and professor at Monmouth University, is the co-editor of Contemporary American Poetry and has appeared in numerous literary journals. He...

photo courtesy of poesiefestival.org In perhaps one of the coolest interviews we at BOA have heard in a long time, host and notable poet Ilya Kaminsky discusses with Nikola Madzirov, award-winning Macedonian poet and author of BOA book Remnants of Another Age, "the poetics of war and its aftermath, and the nature of memory and rediscovering." The extensive audio recording of the interview is truly a once-in-a-lifetime glimpse into linguistic, cultural, and historical concepts currently ongoing in the studies of so many scholars, all from the fascinating lived experiences and memories of Madzirov. Madzirov has been called "one of the...

Naomi Shihab Nye, called "one of the most spirited voices in American poetry" by The Philadelphia Inquirer, is consistently in the headlines for her newest collection of poetry, Transfer. While she has been best known for her poetry collections Fuel, You and Yours,  and an extensive list of other writings, The Philadelphia Inquirer calls Transfer (published by BOA in 2011) "her most powerful to date." Reviewer Thomas Devaney calls the collection an ongoing elegy, which draws on her Palestinian-American heritage to "[chart] three central journeys: the journey of her father’s life in exile in America, the journey of his death,...

[caption id="attachment_1515" align="alignleft" width="144" caption="Kim Addonizio, photo by Joe Allen"][/caption] Kim Addonizio released Tell Me in 2000. The title invites us to sit and let it all out... and that's exactly what Addonizio does. The poems in part 1, "The Singing," introduce us to Kim's" letting it out," night after night wondering who else is still awake in her neighborhood of bars and weary voices.  In "Target" Addonizio shoots a gun with so much satisfaction that we wonder when we'll get our chance to fire. Come to think of it, maybe it's about that time: It feels so good to shoot a gun, to stand with your...