Editors' Picks
Just as many readers have a favorite piece from a past issue, the Bellevue Literary Review editors have writings that have resonated with them long after publication. These are pieces that stood out in the slush pile, that are still vivid even years after first reading them. These stories, essays, and poems are particularly engaging and thought-provoking—the writing smart and alive—and deserving of another turn in the spotlight.
In our Editor’s Picks series, we showcase these favorites alongside commentary from the editor who selected the piece. Check back as this list grows, and also explore our archive to find some of your own favorites.
We hope you enjoy the stories, essays, and poems selected as Editors’ Picks.
Hollis Seamon
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"The Plagiarist" by Hollis Seamon "I first read this story nearly ten years ago, and can remember nearly every detail. I've used the story with my interns in the hospital, and even went to the trouble to look up every poetic reference. One of our reviewers wrote: 'expertly written, gripping, intelligent.' I couldn't agree more."
- Danielle Ofri, Editor-in-chief |
Virginia Chase Sutton
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"Lithium and the Absence of Desire" by Virginia Chase Sutton "One poet whose work leapt out of the slush pile in the early years of BLR was Virginia Chase Sutton. She tackled the subject of mental illness with strength and grace. She wrote about depression's 'gray clouds...shriveling the shoreline' and the manic sense of a sun 'as it burns rock to fire.' Her poems were filled with grit and love. Her narrators helped their own and their loved ones' periodic journeys through dark fields." - Donna Baier Stein, Founding Poetry Editor |
Joan Leegant
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"Sisters of Mercy" by Joan Leegant "I admire the story enormously.... The narrator’s voice seems singular, but the point of view is actually the unusual collective “we,” so Leegant captures an individual and the communal at once. It’s as concise as a poem. It’s moving." - Suzanne McConnell, Fiction Editor |
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"Someone Else's Pain" by Brenna Working Lemieux "I firmly believe that writing is about intimacy, and that imaginative literature offers intimacies that are impossible in life. A poem about what it feels like to receive that information at a remove—to play my role as listener—immediately excited me. This poem talks about the difficulty of understanding. The obstacle that most literature works to overcome becomes the subject itself." - Jason Schneiderman, Poetry Editor |
