Join us as we celebrate the publication of Issue 40 of BLR and honor the winners of the 2021 BLR literary prizes. Featuring their exciting new works of fiction, nonfiction and poetry, freshly picked for spring! Plus interviews by BLR editors Suzanne McConnell, Sarah Sala, and Danielle Ofri

Sunday May 23rd at 5 pm EST.

Free and open to the public. RSVP for link.

“Tattoos” by Galen Schram, winner of the Goldenberg Prize for Fiction
Judged by Dan Chaon

Galen Schram is a hospital-based physical therapist at NYU Langone in New York City and specializes in cancer rehab. He is an aspiring writer, and a student of Narrative Medicine at Columbia University. He lives in Queens with his partner and their dog, Appa.

“Never the Less” by Saleem Hue Penny, winner of the Marica and Jan Vilcek Prize for Poetry
Judged by Jen Bervin

Saleem Hue Penny is a Black ‘rural hip-hop blues’ poet with a vestibular disorder and single-sided deafness. He explores how young people of color traverse wild spaces and define freedom. Saleem is a Cave Canem fellow and dedicates his poem in memory of Rosetta Olethea Harmon Penny.

“The Tapeworm” by Amy V. Blakemore, winner of the Felice Buckvar Prize for Nonfiction
Judged by Sandeep Jauhar

Amy V. Blakemore has published in Kenyon Review, Indiana Review, PANK, and Wigleaf. She’s received support from the Fine Arts Work Center and AWP. She’s at work on her first novel–a horror story about girlhood–and an essay collection on anorexia, bisexuality, and media.