BOA Blog

Rochester, N.Y. — BOA Editions is proud to announce that Marcelo Hernandez Castillo is the winner of the 2019 Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA) New Writers Award in Poetry for his debut collection Cenzontle (BOA Editions, 2018). GLCA’s judges prased the collection with the following statement: “Castillo’s narrative itself couldn’t be more timely and significant: it’s a story of undocumented immigrants, border crossing, transgression, and the tantalizing fictions and facts of the American dream. From the opening poem, one is immediately drawn into the lush, honed music of these lines, which imaginatively translate states of dislocation, high anxiety, grief, and...

The giving season is upon us! As our readers share their favorite books with the BOA Holiday Book Sale and our supporters help us raise the bar with BOA's Annual Campaign, the BOA staff and board would like to share a behind-the-scenes look at one of the lesser known programs here at BOA Editions. Did you know that BOA helps support reading and literary programs across the country? It's true! Every year, we give back to the literary community by donating hundreds of new and gently used books to organizations in need through our Book Donation Program. These organizations include...

Marcelo Hernandez Castillo's Cenzontle is one of a handful of poetry titles recommended on NPR's annual Book Concierge Guide to 2018's Great Reads.NPR poetry critic Tess Taylor praises Castillo's lyric verses and poems that confound easy boundaries: "These poem shapes linger in the mind long after the book is shut."The librarians at the New York Public Library also included Cenzontle on their annual list of The New York Public Library's 2018 Best Books for Adults. When selecting Cenzontle for NBC Latino's Summer Reading List earlier this year, Rigoberto Gonzales wrote that "Cenzontle is a book that speaks with striking language about an experience that’s being presented in public...

Readers in Rochester enjoyed a rare treat on Friday, April 20, when award-winning poet Chen Chen gave a free reading at City Hall in honor of National Poetry Month. The event was co-sponsored by the City of Rochester and BOA Editions, a local not-for-profit independent publisher of poetry and other literary works. Chen is a celebrated young poet whose debut collection When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities won the prestigious GLCA New Writer’s Award, the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Award, and was longlisted for the 2017 National Book Award for Poetry. His work draws...