BOA Editions, Ltd., a not-for-profit publisher of poetry and other literary works, fosters readership and appreciation of contemporary literature. By identifying, cultivating, and publishing both new and established poets and selecting authors of unique literary talent, BOA brings high quality literature to the public. Support for this effort comes from the sale of its publications, grant funding, and private donations. We spoke with Peter Connors, Publisher & Executive Director of BOA Editions.
Read MoreI am beyond excited to write today about a very favourite poet of mine (and this I don’t easily say,) a good friend and a kindred spirit, whose outspokenness and support has come to mean a lot to me as a young writer and poet. I met Faye through my prompt poetry work for Small Leaf Press, and I came to know her more through our honest conversations about the struggles of writing and sticking to a routine to get your work out there. Today, I’ll be critiquing her first chapbook, published by Sunday Mornings at the River—Pneuma—which, truth be told, is an exemplar of contemporary poetry, a gem of originality and poetic sensitivity that deeply resonated with me.
Read MoreKate Gough is a Canadian based poet and a member of the online poetry community. Her work modernizes romantic literary sensibilities and explores recovery to trauma and living with chronic illness. She has participated in a community poetry event “Escapril” three times, releasing poetry every day for a month. She has been published in several online journals, including the Latte Edit and Nightingale and Sparrow, as well as in her local community in Disability Pride Alberta, and in the YYC Portraits of People project. She lives a quiet life with her partner and cat, as she has always dreamed of.
Read MoreOn a rainy January morning, I came across Jemma’s writing prompts on Instagram, and we instantly connected by a shared love for poetry that is honest, emotional and tackles heavily controversial social issues like depression, grief, and motherhood in crisis. Because of her, I have written one of my most favourite poems which Rebecca has chosen for the 2022 Autumn anthology too (you can ask me later, and I’ll tell you about it, but that’s not the point of this introduction, the point is to show you just how much respect and appreciation I have for Jemma’s bright mind and spirit.)
Read MoreHybrid publishers are a mysterious enigma, due to the name, and the vague allusions to “vanity presses”. This connection is understandable, as of course, both require the author to take financial risk in order to publish their book.
Read MoreWe talk a lot ABOUT love. There are songs, poems, t-shirts, postcards, films, art, books, even cakes can sometimes end up with something about love scrawled across the top. Yes, we talk about it. We think we know all there is to know about love. It has a shape and a colour; red hearts are perhaps one of the first things we all learn to recognize when we’re young. The feeling seems universally the same, and most of those poems, songs and films seem to tell us what we already know. They show us a picture drawn long ago and set in the stone of a popular culture that likes to sell us things.
Read MoreSarah (she/her) is a queer poet based in Colorado. She graduated from the Savannah College of Art & Design with a BFA in Sequential Art, where she also studied Creative Writing in the South of France. She is the author of chapbooks The Oceanography of Her and Anti/Muse, and the digital zine I Can Make A Love Poem Out Of Anyone. As a survivor of sexual assault and PTSD, she runs Beyond The Veil Press, advocating for mental health awareness and art as therapy. She is also a long-distance runner, cat mom, and visual artist.
Read MoreHow do I begin? To put the brush to canvas, to mould the clay, to put the pen to ink, and to create.
The question you truly are asking is: How do I begin to trust myself?
As a writer, blockages are going to happen. You may be wondering how to get to a place of clarity.
Simply put, to get clear water, you must turn on the tap. Now, this may sound simplistic, but in practice, the only way to master your art, or even to make art at all, is to let go of the need to produce something good. Make bad art. Make the most atrocious art you can possibly fathom.
Fawn Press is an indie publisher that aims to take the reader by the hand and lead them into the woods. Fawn Press aims to publish beautiful books of exceptional poetry, as theybelieve that poetry has the power to change lives through that transcendental connection between writer and reader.
Read MoreThough there are many publishing houses in the world, giving voices to marginalized artists and exploring the facets of feminism, discrimination, and inequality, there are continually barriers for poets who wish to make their mark.
Read MoreWe often relate sadness to talent, the suffering and starving artists are those with the ability to create rather than consume. In art and literature, that which is small and diminutive is thought of as beautiful, and the death of a beautiful woman is thought to be poetic. Ophelia of Shakespeare and Joan of Arc, these women are thought to be virtuous and beautiful because they suffered.
Read MoreRecently I wrote a poem inspired by seeing some of the reactions to a feminist content creator (@fgrlsclub) who had stepped outside the now tightly drawn lines of contemporary feminism, in order to carefully critique the words of ‘influencer’ Molly Mae.
Read MoreSo you've published a book. It's a piece of true beauty. You've meticulously constructed your masterpiece in the snatched minutes around an unachievable schedule, poetry honed to perfection. You've authorized the most enticing of covers, hired an expert editor, and meticulously modified the internal layout to ensure the font combination is flawless. It's now or never; it is time to let the rest of the world see your work so that you can start receiving great reviews and positive comments from your adoring followers and the industry's best book reviewers.
Read MoreSofiya Ivanova has known she wanted to be a “rhyme-writer” since she was three years old. Born in Moscow, Russia, she was eight years old when she moved to the U.S., where she learned English from scratch and had to adapt to an entirely new culture. Her poetry was published for the first time in the Sunday Mornings At The River Spring 2020 Anthology; she was fourteen years old. Sofiya’s work is heavily inspired by contemporary spoken word and 1950s Beat poetry, as well as feeling everything too deeply, teenage melodrama, and the gorgeous landscape of Colorado.
Read MoreFor a poet, there are very few things that can measure up to the feeling of holding a finished manuscript in your hand. You put that final full stop to it. You can't even discern whether you are exhausted, thrilled with joy, or a little bit of both. It is normal to feel overwhelmed because you just poured all of your sweat and tears into your book-baby, and it was only the beginning. Next comes the daunting process of actually publishing the thing.
Read MoreSophia-Maria Nicolopoulos is a Content Editor of fiction from Greece. She chooses to see her writing as the kind Ophelia would write had she navigated a world of boundless horror. She writes to make sense of said world and shed light on the obscure places where reality meets the surreal. She hates the taste of fresh tomatoes, and she loves cheese. In her free time, she removes cat hair from her clothes. Sophia-Maria joined us as a book reviewer recently, and you can find her articles on our blog.
Read MoreSindhu Rajasekaran is a literary nomad and transgressor of genres. She has published a novel titled Kaleidoscopic Reflections, which was nominated for the Crossword Book Award in India. Her collection of short stories, titled So I Let It Be, was published by Pegasus Publishers, UK. Her latest book of non-fiction, Smashing the Patriarchy – A Guide for the 21st Century Indian Woman, is to be published by the reputed Aleph Book Company. In her work, both fiction and non-fiction, Sindhu explores gender and sexuality, language and landscape, contemporary politics, and existential dilemmas.
Read MoreMichaela Dengg started writing poetry in 2015. In 2019, she started publishing poems on Instagram under the pseudonym ‘Mariam,’ a combination of her first and middle name. Her poetry frequently deals with the concept of ‘home’ and ‘home far away from home’. She usually writes short poems and aphorisms with powerful wordplays.
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