Remembering Elizabeth Crowell

The editors of Bellevue Literary Review were saddened to hear of the death of Elizabeth Crowell, who passed away on December 21, 2024, after a long battle with cancer. 

Liz was a talented writer who holds the distinction of being the only writer ever to win a BLR literary prize twice. (Quite an accomplishment, given that each contest has a different judge!) Liz used her essays to bring readers into her life, allowing them to walk with her on the path to motherhood and in the face of her cancer diagnosis. 

“I often write to understand what I don’t understand,” Liz told us in an interview after her second win in 2018. “Cancer is so complex. The most disorienting (or maybe orienting?) thing about having metastatic cancer is this sense that there is less time and there is some distance you want to cover.”

In her essay “Cancer, So Far,” Liz wrote: “The one thing that I feel absolutely sure about is the power of words.” We are grateful to have been part of Liz Crowell’s writing journey, and are pleased to share both of her prize-winning essays with you.

“The Tag”
Winner of the 2011 BLR Prize for Nonfiction, selected by judge Jerome Groopman

“Cancer, So Far”
Winner of the 2018 BLR Prize for Nonfiction, selected by judge Rivka Galchen