BOA Blog

Hello readers! Every week, the BOA staff shares one of our favorite poems from our over 300 collections of poetry. This week's poem is from Christine Kitano's forthcoming collection, Sky Country, now available for pre-order in the BOA Bookstore. In this poem, the speaker is a Japanese-American interred at the Topaz Concentration Camp in Utah during World War II. Fireflies Because they have never seen anything like it,the city children weave through the barracks calling usto come see. Our stories of fireflies in Japanmust echo in their young heads, how we'd picnicin summer heat to watch the lit bodies punctuatethe dark. Better than Christmas, we'd...

Hello readers! BOA is launching a new feature on our website! Every week, our staff will share one of our favorite poems from our over 300 collections of poetry. This week's poem holds a very special place in BOA's history. It was written by our founder, A. Poulin, Jr., and selected by Michael Waters for inclusion in A. Poulin, Jr. Selected Poems (2001).  Cave Dwellers I've carved a cave in the mountainside. I've drilled for water, stocked provisions to last a lifetime. The walls are smooth. We can live here, love, safe from elements. We'll invest another love that can't destroy. We'll make exquisite...

Hello readers! BOA Editions is launching a new occasional series for our blog. Join our team of interns as they explore over 40 years of our publication history and share their passion for some of their favorite titles from BOA Editions. In today's post, Jackie S. explains why you have to read Christian Barter's newest collection. Beautiful, Accessible, and Important: Christian Barter’s Bye-Bye Land Hello, and welcome! I’m Jackie, one of BOA’s summer interns. I’ve just graduated from SUNY Geneseo with an English Literature degree, and I’m currently carving my way into the publishing world. BOA is an interesting choice for...

Library Journal recently published a refreshingly candid Q&A with BOA poet Devin Becker, author of the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize-winning collection Shame | Shame. The piece touches on a bit of everything, from inspiration to the MFA experience, to the nitty-gritty details of publishing a book. When asked what inspired his debut collection, which humorously focuses on the everyday sort of shame born of small, socially clumsy moments in life, Becker says, "A lot of the things are mundane. Me and my coworkers sitting outside of a building having coffee, or my wife and I at a smoothie joint in a nearby...