For too many people, the experience with poetry begins and ends with nursery rhymes, and is only rarely revisited with the occasional recitation of Pablo Neruda at a wedding. Which is really a shame, because there are few things in human culture that so seriously move the secret person inside each of us, or allow a private dawning of meaning and cruciality between strangers, a conveyance of what is common and what is not in staggeringly lovely language. Those who don't take time away from the mad rush to indulge - yes, indulge - in the poetical arts probably aren't familiar with the diamond-in-the-Roc that is BOA Editions. In celebration of its 35th anniversary, the local non-profit indie publishing house is holding steady among other larger cultural institutions in town, and looking forward to some exciting future editions and events.

The BOA Editions office is a very cozy, small but efficiently-organized suite in Anderson Alley, the rows of gorgeous little pieces of art literature are enough to make the most discerning literary snob feel like a kid-at-heart in a wee artisanal sweets shop.

BOA was founded in 1976 by the late poet, editor, and Brockport professor Al Poulin, Jr., also a renowned translator of Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke. BOA has always focused both on poetry and the art of a good translation, and Poulin had a "really good eye for something that would make a splash," says Peter Conners, current BOA publisher.

The press' first publication in 1977 was the second book by W.D. Snodgrass, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his first book, "Heart's Needle," in 1960. But Snodgrass's "The Fuhrer Bunker," a collection of poems written from the persona of Nazis, Nazi officials, and German civilians living through the Nazi regime, was sensitive subject matter from this celebrated poet. "Nobody would touch this book," says Conners, but Poulin believed in it, and by publishing the book generated discussion and debate and immediately put BOA on the literary map. In 1984 BOA published "Yin" by Carolyn Kizer, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1985. More grant funding came after that, and BOA was able to move out of Poulin's Brockport home and into downtown Rochester, above Arena's Florist. About four years ago it moved to its current space in Anderson Alley.

Before he began working at BOA eight years ago, Conners taught writing workshops through Young Audiences, Writers & Books, ARTISANworks, as well as a reading series at the latter location, and founded and edited a literary journal entitled "Double Room." Conners began as marketing director but shifted to editorial duties, and was made publisher about a year ago. BOA's three-person staff also includes part-timers Melissa Hall, development director and office manager, and Al Abonado, associate director of marketing and production. The press also takes on two to four interns per semester from area schools and a part-time worker from Syracuse University's MFA writing program. Stages of production are done in-house, and BOA works with two local designers and two or three printers not in-house. Their distributor is in Minneapolis, and typesetter is located in Maine.

Though BOA began as a poetry press in 1976, Conners convinced the board to add two annual fiction publications. BOA receives about 2,000 manuscripts each year for the 10 books it produces annually. These include two fiction, two translated works, and six poetry series, including the A. Poulin Jr. Poetry Class Contest, geared toward new authors. Competition for open slots is tight, says Conners, and BOA is concerned with the "balance of trying to bring in new voices, to stay contemporary, but also honor BOA's roots and authors that Al [Poulin] has selected and brought in, and try to support them throughout their careers."

The process of selecting authors includes open reading periods for each series where writers can submit their manuscripts. The series include the American Poets Continuum series for established poets, New Poets of America series for a poet's first book, the Lannan Translation Selection series, and the American Readers series for a fiction book or books related to poetry or writing, such as the an upcoming work by MCC professor Anthony Leuzzi featuring interviews with poets including Billy Collins.

Conners calls the New Mexico-based Lannan Foundation "the unsung heroes of the American literature scene, because they fund a lot of presses like BOA and don't make a big deal about it," he says. "They give us $60,000 per year to publish two translated books of poetry." This foundation has enabled BOA to publish glimpses into other people's cultures, joys, and struggles, including a volume of Greek poet Yannis Ritsos's poems originally penned in prison using the poet's own blood. "Ruling regimes know the power of poetry," says Conners, and they try to silence poets' voices.

Another recent translation is "Praises and Offenses," the only anthology of its kind, featuring contemporary female Dominican poets - "quirky niche stuff," says Conners, "but at the same time, it's so important to get it out there, so you kind of take a bullet on it by publishing something you know isn't going to be a huge seller, but you believe in it." Within the slim volume, Ylonka Nacidit-Perdomo's "Your glance launched me against the world" is a brief, concise, and utterly perfect love letter to the one whose love expanded her life.

A 2003 collection of poems, "Miracle Maker," by Iraqi poet-in-exile Fadhil Al-Azzawi, was a controversial publication given our nation's relations with Iraq. The University of Rochester's Open Letter publishing house gave its Best Translated Book of Poetry Award to a Slovenian translation title "The Book of Things," published by BOA in 2010. To gain an idea of how special this local operation is, consider that publications by BOA and its "sister presses" - White Pine in Buffalo and Copper Canyon in Washington State - together make up about 95 percent of the translated poetry in the country, according to Conners.

Prominent poets published through BOA include Li-Young Lee, Naomi Shihab Nye, and the late Lucille Clifton. Clifton has the uncommon distinction of being "read by people who aren't poets," Conners says. She authored BOA-published "Blessing the Boats," which won the National Book Award in 2000. BOA is currently working with Clifton's family to publish "The Collected Works of Lucille Clifton," which will include three books BOA did not publish, and is set to publish in the fall of 2012.

It will be the biggest book BOA has ever published, with regards to literary importance, says Conners, but also physically, at 700 or 800 pages. The collection will feature a forward by Toni Morrison and blurbs from Maya Angelou, Nikki Giovanni, and current Poet Laureate of the United States, W. S. Merwin. BOA is in the midst of a fundraising campaign, as Lannan has offered a $50,000 matching grant. The one book will cost as much to produce as two years' of BOA's traditional publishing costs, but "the opportunity is also huge, and so it's something we can't squander," says Conners.

Local connections are becoming increasingly important to BOA, says Conners. Selected poets and authors are allowed to select cover art for their book from a visual art library of work by local artists. Though the public is invited to the office to speak with staff, browse, and buy, BOA is not a venue per se, so relationships with other local institutions are key. BOA holds a writing workshop series at Midtown Fitness, and co-hosts a poetry event with Rochester Contemporary during the Rochester International Jazz Festival. The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra has approached BOA about adding poetry to its upcoming programming, plans for which are still amorphous but will also involve students from School of the Arts. BOA's board members also hold pop-up poetry readings at the Public Market, and Rochester Contemporary.

This year's special anniversary edition of BOA's annual "Dine & Rhyme" event takes place Sunday, September 18, and will feature a blend of past and present authors. The event includes readings by poets in various stages of their careers, including one of the first authors BOA had published, Michael Waters, who was a student of Al Poulin's; first-time published poet Keetje Kuipers; and Aracelis Girmay, whose "Kingdom Animalia" is her second book, but first publication with BOA. The readings will take place at the Memorial Art Gallery, followed by a reception and silent auction at Good Luck.

The legacy BOA is creating is an important one, not only with respect to cultural heritage but also in promoting our ability to actively focus on vital things amid more passive forms of entertainment. "Poetry can convey amazing scenes or concepts or images with five or six words," says Conners, while allowing the reader the "space to interact with the ideas rather than just projecting them up onto a screen for them to absorb." He argues that though it takes more time to discern, "the payoff is really amazing. It will make you look at the world that you live in every day with new eyes, with a new perspective. I think it can illuminate the quotidian and elevate it to art." It might be just a specific line from a poem that resonates with you, but "all of a sudden it will click, and that line puts a whole situation to a completely different light," he says. A critical yet often ignored part of each of our paths is to actively search for those clicks, to be open and sensitive to genuine experience.

BOA Dine & Rhyme

Sunday, September 18

3 p.m. poetry reading & book signing, Memorial Art Gallery, 500 University Ave.

6 p.m. reception dinner & silent auction, Good Luck, 50 Anderson Ave.

$20-$25/reading only, $125/entire program

546-3410, boaeditions.org