BLR Fall 2023 Reading: The Art of Taking Care

Meet the writers and editors behind BLR’s Issue 45 on ‘taking care’, with brand-new fiction, nonfiction, and poetry works.

Featuring readings by Stephanie Isan, Eric Raymond, and Lucia Owen

With interviews by BLR editors Doris W. ChengRonna WinebergOmotara James, and Danielle Ofri

Plus additional conversations with caregivers Sheila JohnsonChar S., and Melissa A. Martin

Online Thursday, October 5th at 7 pm EST. In collaboration with AARP

Free and open to the public.

About the authors:

Stephanie Isan (she/they) is a queer Taiwanese American writer, poet, and software engineer. She currently lives in the southwestern US with her dog, two cats, and husband. stephanieisan.com.

Eric Raymond lives in San Francisco. “Revisions” is from his memoir in progress. His late wife Kim, the subject of his essay, had a story published in BLR seventeen years ago. She kept her copy of the publication contract pinned on her bulletin board for years. It was the first—and in the end, only—story she ever published.

Lucia Owen moved to western Maine over fifty years ago to teach high school English and wouldn’t live anywhere else. She started writing poetry seriously in 2019, about the same time she began taking care of her husband of almost forty-eight years at home.

About the caregivers:

Melissa A. Martin is the proud caregiver to her beloved husband, Thomas E. Carney. Melissa and Tom have enjoyed living in Baltimore, Maryland. They share the love of Gustav Klimt, Broadway shows, and crab cakes.