BOA Blog

Tomorrow (4/1) The Poetry Society of America will host its 100th Annual Awards Ceremony. This is a special - and bittersweet - event for BOA. Lucille Clifton will be honored posthumously with the PSA's highest award, The Frost Medal. The Frost Medal is awarded by the PSA's Board of Governors for "distinguished lifetime service to American poetry." We are consoled by the fact that Lucille was told about this honor before she passed away. The ceremony will held at the Grand Gallery of the National Arts Club, 15 Gramercy Park South in New York City. It will start at 7PM...

[caption id="attachment_697" align="alignleft" width="274" caption="Craig Morgan Teicher. Journalist and BOA author. "][/caption] BOA authors aren't just poets and fiction writers. They are also teachers, mentors, journalists, reviewers... and a whole bunch of other things unrelated to literature. Whether it's literary or not, we love authors who are engaged in the larger world. Getting involved with your community - whether it's on a local, national, or international scale - is the best way to effect change. The surprise result is that such engagement also deepens ones writing. Craig Morgan Teicher's new book, a collection of adult fables titled Cradle Book, will...

[caption id="attachment_691" align="alignleft" width="123" caption="Kazim Ali. BOA poet."][/caption] BOA poet Kazim Ali (The Fortieth Day) has written an illuminating essay on the poetics of Lucille Clifton. The essay first appeared in Barn Owl Review and is now posted in its entirety at Delirious Hem. It will also appear in Kazim's upcoming book, Orange Alert: Essays on Poetry, Art and the Architecture of Silence, which is forthcoming from University of Michigan Press. The essay begins: "Lucille Clifton is known as a poet of simple and clear diction, informed by trickster sensibility, and is as facile with the cadences of King James...

Poetry and Wine! Join us as we celebrate the publication of the A. Poulin, Jr. Prize-winning debut poetry collection Beautiful in the Mouth by Keetje Kuipers The night will include two additional BOA poets— Cecilia Woloch and Dan Albergotti —who will read from their own fantastic books of poetry. Bonus Prize: The first 15 guests to buy a book will also take home a free bottle of wine! When: Friday, April 9th at 8pm Location: D'Vine Winery 1660 Champa Street (just one block from the main conference hotel!) [Free admission and open bar] [caption id="attachment_679" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Keetje Kuipers. BOA...

"Plastic Beatitude", by Laure-Anne Bosselaar, was featured by the Writer's Almanac blog on March 23rd, 2010. The poem is from Bosselaar's 1997 book, The Hour Between Dog and Wolf. In his foreward, Charles Simic describes Bosselaar's work as "an authentic poetic voice, one serious enough to be heard at the end of this long and brutal century." The book captures the lives of "lost souls running," speaking of eccentric, vibrant people, who lived in Europe in the midst of and the fallout from the World Wars. An Exerpt from "Plastic Beatitude": Our neighbors, the Pazzotis, live in a long narrow...