BLR’s latest issue is on “Taking Care,” featuring stories, essays, and poems on caring for others, ourselves, and more.

Join us on October 5th to meet three writers from this special issue — Lucia Owen, Eric Raymond, and Stephanie Isan  — who will read from their work, as well as be interviewed by BLR editors Omotara James, Ronna Wineberg, and Doris W. Cheng. 

As part of the ‘taking care’ theme, editor-in-chief Danielle Ofri also talks with caregivers Sheila Johnson, Char S., and Melissa A. Martin.

Free and open to the public. RSVP for the link. (You can RSVP even if you can't make the exact date/time of the event, as the link will stay active afterward.)

Get your copy of BLR's special theme issue on "Taking Care" — print or digital — from the BLR store.

We are grateful to AARP for their support of both the issue and reading, as well as for connecting us with the caregivers featured in the event.

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About the participants:

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 her husband of almost forty-eight years at home.

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. 

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. 

Sheila D. Johnson lives in Richmond, Virginia as a baker, social media freelancer and most importantly, caregiver to the Best Brother Eva (BBE). Advocating constantly to ensure we are treated with respect, dignity and compassion while navigating the journey no one would have chosen. Member of Medicaid Advisory Committee. Sharing our honest journey of love, the exhausting, overwhelming, joys, struggles, frustrating as we move along this path on www.coocoocaregiver.com.

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.

Char S. has been a caregiver for six years, along with her sister, for their father, Charles, who is 90 years old and a Korean War veteran. They take great joy in caring and advocating for their father. She lives in California with her husband and three adult children, and works at a nonprofit agency supporting early childhood education In her spare time, she enjoys baking from scratch and writing.