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Joanne Steinberg Varona’s narrative “The King and I” is a plaintive but witty account of how multiple sclerosis transforms her marriage. Her king is the king bed she increasingly retreats to, exhausted, alone, and apart from her husband. Amanda Skelton’s “Attack of the Killer Calories” leads the reader along a step-by-step account of bringing her dy-ing son to a treatment center for adolescents with anorexia, called Footprints of Angels, a place not populated by angels, but fallen an-gels. “Wraith-like girls with peril-ous clavicles and concave bellies drifted through the room, their footsteps mere whispers against the dark wooden boards.” The facts reveal the darkness of a fam-ily fallen from the grace of health

Contributors’ Notes

Amanda Auchter is the founding editor of Pebble Lake Review and the author of The Glass Crib, winner of the 2010 Zone 3 Press First Book Award. Her collection, The City That Care Forgot, was a finalist for the 2012 New Issues Press Green Rose Prize. Her new work appears in 5AM, Crab Orchard Review, The Greensboro Review, and The Journal. She holds an MFA from Bennington College and teaches creative writing and literature at Lone Star College.

Carol Barrett holds doctorates in both Creative Writing and Clinical Psychology, and has taught Poetry for Medical Professionals. Her first full-length book, Calling in the Bones, won the Snyder prize from Ashland Poetry Press (2005.) She has two chapbooks—Drawing Lessons from Finishing Line Press, and Pansies, due from Pecan Grove press. Her poems appear in JAMA and many other magazines and anthologies. She works for Union Institute & University and for Saybrook University.

Bruce Bond’s most recent collections of poetry include Choir of the Wells (forthcoming in 2013), The Visible, Peal, and Blind Rain, which was a finalist for LSU’s Poet’s Prize in 2008. Presently he is a Regents Professor of English at the University of North Texas and poetry editor for American Literary Review.

Sally Lipton Derringer is a creative writing instructor and manuscript consultant whose book manuscript was a finalist for Fordham University’s Poets Out Loud Prize and the New Issues Poetry Prize. Her poems have appeared in Poet Lore, The Los Angeles Review, The Prose-Poem Project, Memoir (and), SLAB, The Quarterly, The New York Quarterly, and Tampa Review. She has an MA in Creative Writing from Antioch University and currently teaches at Rockland Center for the Arts in West Nyack, New York.

and now living with a chronic and even terminal disease.

Skelton’s narrative, like this volume’s other illness narratives and poems, is not simply ad-vice for patients and caregivers, schadenfreude entertainment, or a diary of self-therapy. These narra-tives and poems deliver the revela-tion that comes from a well-told story, and the essays that support them are thoughtful and provoca-tive. Writers, readers, and teachers will all find value in this book.

Jason Karlawish is the author of the novel Open Wound: The Tragic Obsession of Dr. William Beaumont. He is a Professor of Medicine and Medical Ethics at the University of Pennsylvania.

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Alex Dimitrov’s first book of poems, Begging for It, is forthcoming from Four Way Books. He is the recipient of the Stanley Kunitz Prize for younger poets from the American Poetry Review and the founder of Wilde Boys, a queer poetry salon in New York City. His poems have appeared in The Kenyon Review, Yale Review, Slate, Tin House, and Boston Review. He works at the Academy of American Poets, teaches creative writing at Rutgers University, and writes frequently for Poets & Writers.

Mary Elizabeth Frandson lives in St. Paul, Minnesota and teaches English at the University of St. Thomas and Saint Paul College. She received her BA in English from The College of St. Benedict/St. Johns University, where she served as editor-in-chief of Studio One. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from The New School. Her poetry has been published in Margie. Clifford Garstang, a former international lawyer, earned his MFA from Queens University of Charlotte. His award-winning, linked story collection, In an Uncharted Country, was published in 2009. What the Zhang Boys Know—a novel in stories which includes “A Hole in the Wall”—is forthcoming from Press 53. Recent work has appeared in Blackbird, Valparaiso Fiction Review, Cream City Review, Los Angeles Review, and Tampa Review. He is the Editor of Prime Number Magazine.

Laurie Ann Guerrero is the author of a chapbook, Babies Under the Skin. Her critical and creative work has appeared in Women Studies Quarterly, Huizache, Borderlands: The Texas Poetry Review, Acentos Review, Feminist Studies, and Boxcar Poetry Review. Born and raised in the Southside of San Antonio, she holds a BA in English from Smith College and an MFA from Drew University. A CantoMundo Fellow and member of the Macondo Writers’ Workshop, she teaches creative writing at Palo Alto College in San Antonio. (www.laurieguerrero.com)

Kristin Inciardi received her masters in information and library science from the Pratt Institute in New York City, and her MFA in creative writing from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She lives in North Carolina with her boyfriend, Jeremy, and their puppy, Jolene.

Stacey Gill Jacobs’ stories and essays are inspired by family life, passersby, and the rural landscapes she photographs. She studied writing at the University of Virginia and at WriterHouse of Charlottesville. Her essay “Baked Goods” is her debut publication. She hopes to shed light on over-the-counter drug abuse, an epidemic among teens and young adults that often receives little attention. She lives in central Virginia with her husband and three surviving children.

Marie Kane’s poetry has appeared in U.S. 1 Worksheets, Wordgathering, the Schuylkill Valley Journal, Hot Metal Press, the Delaware Valley Poets Anthology, The Poet’s Touchstone, and The Meadowland Review. She has received awards from the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts, and from The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. Her poetry has won prizes from the Poetry Society of New Hampshire, Inglis House, and the Robert Frasier Poetry Contest. She was the 2006 Bucks County (Pennsylvania) Poet Laureate. John Kay is a poet and photographer. His poems have appeared in the German newspaper Frankfurter Allegemeiner Zeitung, as well as in the Bellevue Literary Review. His photography exhibit, “Decollages for Kafka,” appeared in Lindau, Germany. In 2011, he gave a reading and a photo exhibition in Portland, Oregon. In 1959, he was an all-star short-stop in the Inglewood Little League in California and was about to fall in love for the first time with a girl named Nancy.

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Jay Kidd has an MDiv from Union Theological Seminary and has worked in the field of mental health for over 30 years. He currently practices as a certified life coach helping people navigate the human experience. He is a student at the Writers Studio in New York City and lives in Greenwich Village with his husband and his dog. (www.jaykiddcoach.com)

Clark Knowles teaches writing at the University of New Hampshire. He received his MFA from Bennington College. The Arts Council of the State of New Hampshire awarded him an Individual Fellowship in 2009. His fiction can be found in Harpur Palate, Conjunctions, Limestone, Nimrod, and Eclipse. He lives in an old farmhouse in Portsmouth, New Hampshire with his family.

Harry W. Kopp, a former foreign service officer and consultant in international trade, is the Washington representative of the Philippine sugar industry. He is the author of Commercial Diplomacy and the National Interest, and (with the late Charles Gillespie) of Career Diplomacy, published by Georgetown University Press and now in its second edition. “Trotsky in the Bronx” is his first work of fiction. He lives in Annapolis, Maryland.

Jennifer Lee is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins MA Writing Program. Her work has appeared in JMWW, Brink Magazine, the Potomac Review and the Bellevue Literary Review. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

Brenna Working Lemieux earned an MFA from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She has lived in Chicago, Baltimore, Paris, and Galway, and currently resides in southern Illinois.

Megan Leonard lives on the New Hampshire seacoast, where she has a pet bunny and a little red boat. She is very interested in mollusks. She is a student of poetry at UNH, and her work has appeared in various journals, including the Aurorean and GlitterPony.

Deena Linett’s third poetry collection, The Gate at Visby, is published by Tiger Bark Press. Recent fiction appears in The Massachusetts Review and Casualty, and nonfiction in Tiferet: A Journal of Spiritual Literature.

Naomi Lore is a writer and artist based in New York City. She was the 2008 Tomaselli Award winner for Poetry at SUNY New Paltz, where she completed her minor in Creative Writing. Previous work has been a finalist in the Naugatuck River Review Narrative Poetry contest, as well as the Writebloody manuscript contest. Other nonfiction has appeared in the anthology, “In Search of…” published by Codhill Press.

Eleonora Luongo is a graduate of the MFA program at Rutgers University in Newark where she studied creative writing and book arts. Her poetry has appeared in mad swirl, Used Furniture Review, and Flashquake. Her work as part of the GlassBook Project, which uses art to break stereotypes around ways people cope with trauma, has exhibited all over the US and most recently at the Museum of Art of Puerto Rico.

Renee Beauregard Lute is an MFA student at Hamline University, and lives in Providence, Rhode Island with her husband, two cats, and gestating fetus, who will make its first appearance in 2012. Her poetry and fiction have appeared in a number of literary journals, including the Northern New England Review, The Rectangle, and Melusine: or Woman in the 21st Century, and she is reviews editor of The Review Review.

Ilya Lyashevsky works at Electric Literature, a literary quarterly, and at Broadcastr, a startup building a location-based storytelling platform. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Epiphany, Controlled Burn, Independent Ink Magazine, The Outlet, Storied, and Foliate Oak. He lives in Brooklyn.

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Thomas March is a teacher, critic and poet. Some of his recent poems and reviews appear in Confrontation, The Q Review, The Believer, The Ledge, Spoon River Poetry Review, Vallum, and Virginia Quarterly Review. He is a past winner of the Norma Millay Ellis Fellowship, awarded by the Millay Colony for the Arts, and a former finalist for The Southwest Review’s Morton Marr poetry prize.

Jill McDonough’s first book is Habeas Corpus; Where You Live will be published in 2012. She is a winner of a Pushcart Prize and has received fellowships from the NEA and the Library of Congress. She teaches in prisons for Boston University and directs 24PearlStreet, the online writing program at the Fine Arts Work Center.

Travis Mossotti was awarded the 2011 May Swenson Poetry Award by Garrison Keillor for his first collection of poems, About the Dead, and the 2009 James Hearst Poetry Prize from the North American Review by contest judge Robert Pinsky. His work has appeared in the Antioch Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Manchester Review, Poetry Ireland Review, Subtropics, and Vallum. In 2010 his poem “Decampment” was adapted to screen as an animated short film. He lives in St. Louis, Missouri.

Stacy Nigliazzo is a poet and ER nurse. Her work has been featured in JAMA and the American Journal of Nursing. Her poem “Family Waiting Room” appeared in the Spring 2011 issue of the BLR.

Susan Okie is a poet, medical journalist, and physician who lives in Bethesda, Maryland. She volunteers at a primary care clinic for uninsured patients, and teaches first-year medical students at Georgetown University how to talk with patients. Her poetry has appeared in Passager, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and The Gettysburg Review. She is currently pursuing an MFA in poetry at Warren Wilson College.

Jessica Penner received her MFA in creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College. She won an honorable mention in Open City’s RRofihe Trophy short story contest for the story “Homebody.” Her most recent publications are a short story in the anthology Tongue Screws and Testimonies and an essay in the literary journal Rhubarb. Her first novel, Shaken in the Water, is due out in 2012. She writes and teaches ESL in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Dwaine Rieves is an internist in Washington, DC. His poetry collection, When the Eye Forms, won the 2005 Tupelo Press Judges Prize.

Annita Sawyer is a psychologist and faculty member at Yale. She has attended the Wesleyan Writers’ Conference, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and Phillip Lopate’s workshop at Skidmore. She has been awarded residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, Ragdale, VCCA, MacDowell and Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts. Her work has appeared in The Healing Muse, The MacGuffin, The Saint Ann’s Review and the Journal of Clinical Psychology: In Session. She is completing a memoir: Smoking Cigarettes, Eating Glass. Lauren Schmidt’s poems have been published in The Progressive, Alaska Quarterly Review, New York Quarterly, Rattle, Nimrod, and Fifth Wednesday Journal. Her work has been selected as a finalist for the Janet B. McCabe Poetry Prize, the Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry, the Intro to Journals Project, and the Dancing Girl Press Chapbook Contest. Her awards include the So to Speak Poetry Prize and the Neil Postman Prize for Metaphor. Her chapbook The Voodoo Doll Parade was selected as part of the 2011 Author’s Choice Chapbooks Series. Her first full-length collection, Psalms of the Dining Room, is forthcoming.

Anya Silver’s book of poetry, The Ninety-Third Name of God, was published by the Louisiana State University Press in 2010. She has published poetry most recently in Five Points, New Ohio Review, and

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Image. She teaches in the English Department at Mercer University and lives in Macon, Georgia with her husband and son. She is living with advanced inflammatory breast cancer.

James Stolen was adopted from Calcutta, India and has lived in Alaska and Oregon. He served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Lesotho. He is currently an MFA candidate at Virginia Tech where he is working on several short stories and a novel.

Kathryn Trueblood is the author of The Baby Lottery, which was a Book Sense Pick in 2007, and The Sperm Donor’s Daughter. She is the recipient of the 2011 Red Hen Press Short Story Award. Her stories and articles have been published in Poets & Writers Magazine, Rain Taxi Review of Books, Publishers Weekly, The Seattle Weekly, Glimmer Train and Zyzzyva. She teaches at Western Washington University. Maya Jewell Zeller grew up in rural communities of the Pacific Northwest. Her book, Rust Fish, was published by Lost Horse Press. She is the recipient of the 2011 Wabash Prize for Poetry from Sycamore Review (selected by Louise Gluck). Maya teaches literature and composition at Gonzaga University in Spokane, where she lives with her husband and delightful two-year-old daughter.

Acknowledgments

We are deeply grateful to all who have helped support the Bellevue Literary Review in its efforts to bridge the worlds of literature and medicine. Without the support of so many committed individuals and foundations, the BLR could not have developed and grown.

This project is supported in part by awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts.

Special thanks to the Goldenberg family, Marica and Jan Vilcek, and the Burns Archive for their sponsorship of the Bellevue Literary Review Prizes.

Founder: The Vilcek Foundation Publisher: The Hassenfeld Foundation Benefactors: Lola Finkelstein, Dr. Arthur Lebowitz, Drs. Anthony & Elayne Mustalish

Muses: H. Dale & Elizabeth Hemmerdinger, Dr. William Schaffner Friends: Dr. Doreen Addrizzo-Harris, Dr. Thomas W. Andrews, Dr. Robert J. Anderson, Dr. Richard J. Baron, Dr. Michael S. Bruno, Dr. Peter Elsbach, Hoyt & Martha Hickman, Dr. William J. Houghton, Richard & Arlene Kossoff, Dr. & Mrs. Franco Muggia, Dr. Richard Nachtigall, Dr. Lionel A. Rudolph, Dr. Rhonda Soricelli, Dr. Michael Yeaman, Dr. Johanna Youner

Supporters: Dr. Elie M. Abemayor, Dr. Charles Debrovner, Dr. Arthur C. Fox, Cora Freedman, Dr. Silvia Hafliger, Dr. Charles S. Hirsch, Dr. Martin L. Kahn, Dr. Barbara H. Landreth, Dr. Mark S. Lipton, Dr. Robert Maslansky, Dr. Sander H. Mendelson, Dr. Andrew Milano, Dr. Diana Nilsen, Drs. William & Veronica Slater, Dr. Mary E. Wilson