BOA Blog

It’s Women’s History Month, and here at BOA we’d like to take this opportunity to celebrate our phenomenal women authors! Since our start in 1976, we’ve been a proud publisher of women, from Lucille Clifton, Dorianne Laux, and Brigit Pegeen Kelly, to the present day, with books from Alicia Mountain, Margaret Ray, Jessica Q. Stark, Mahtem Shiferraw, and Jeannine Hall Gailey publishing this spring. We’re so excited to celebrate their work, and we’re not alone! Take a look at some recent buzz for our women authors and treat yourself to some good books: Barbara Jane Reyes, author of Letters to...

Here at BOA, we're celebrating Black History Month by highlighting the work of our Black authors! We asked each of our spring interns to write a short piece and select a poem from a recent or backlist BOA author. In Part 2 of 3, spring intern Justine shares about Luther Hughes' A Shiver in the Leaves and Dustin Pearson's A Season in Hell with Rimbaud! A Shiver in the Leaves by Luther Hughes  Luther Hughes' debut poetry collection, A Shiver in the Leaves, really caught me off guard. It has been a long, long time since I’ve read something as brutally honest and it restored...

At BOA, we're celebrating Black History Month by highlighting the work of our Black authors! We asked each of our interns to write a short piece and select a poem from a recent or backlist BOA author. To start off the series, spring intern Kathryn writes about Renia White's Casual Conversation, Geffrey Davis' Revising the Storm, and Janice Harrington's Even the Hollow My Body Made is Gone. Casual Conversation by Renia White  The poems of Renia White’s debut collection Casual Conversation immediately bring us front and center to the conventions of speech, conversation, and what remains tucked behind the tongue. This...

Hi readers! Join our spring interns as they look through 45 years of our publication history and share their passion for some of their favorite BOA titles. In this post, Amelia shares about the book Gravity Changes by Zach Powers.    Hello everyone! I’m Amelia, one of BOA’s Spring ‘22 interns. I’ll be graduating from MCC with my associate’s in Creative Writing this spring, and I plan to transfer to a 4-year college for writing in the fall. As someone who hopes to eventually publish her own books, working with the BOA team has been invaluable in learning about what goes on “behind the scenes” in...

As Women’s History Month comes to a close, check out some of the amazing recent BOA titles written by women! Below you’ll find a mix of poems and book descriptions to pique your interest and get you excited to read (or re-read) these dynamic and heart-felt collections. Letters to a Young Brown Girl by Barbara Jane Reyes Excerpt from "Dear Brown Girl," What if I told you that you don’t have to do as you’re told. Yes, you can cut up the script they made you recite by heart with your cut up tongue. Yes, by those people, who wanted...