CONTRIBUTORS
Michael Ennis was born in Brooklyn and lives in Colorado, where he teaches writing and Mesoamerican literatures.
Ross Knapp is a recent college graduate with degrees in philosophy and literature who's also going to graduate school for creative writing. He has written an experimental literary novel and has also read and written poetry extensively independently in addition to working a day job to pay the bills. Originally he was planning on law school or a PHD in philosophy but decided to follow his passions and pursue poetry and writing as a career. Some of the poets he admires most are Sappho, Virgil, Li Po, Hafiz, Francois Villon, Dante, Keats, Whitman, Akhmatova, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Eliot, Pound, Crane, Millay, Thomas, Sexton, Lowell, Ginsberg, and Plath.
Ralph Monday is an Associate Professor of English at Roane State Community College in Harriman, TN., where he teaches composition, literature, and creative writing courses. In fall 2013 he had poems published in The New Plains Review, New Liberties Review, Fiction Week Literary Review, and was represented as the featured poet with 12 poems in the December issue of Poetry Repairs. In winter 2014 he had poems published in Dead Snakes. In summer 2014 he had a poem published in Contemporary Poetry: An Anthology of Best Present Day Poems. His work has appeared in publications such as The Phoenix, Bitter Creek Review, Full of Crow, Impressions, Kookamonga Square, Deep Waters, Jacket Magazine, The New Plains Review, New Liberties Review, Crack the Spine, The Camel Saloon, Dead Snakes, Pyrokinection, and Poetry Repairs. His first book collection, Empty Houses and American Renditions, will be published by Hen House Press in 2014.
Johnny Paine's book of poetry Vassal will be published this fall by Mouthfeel Press. He's published eight novels, and is a produced playwright.
Stephen Pisani is a Long Island, New York native who received his Master of Arts in Writing from Coastal Carolina University in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. He is looking to pursue an MFA in the near future.
Deborah S. Prespare -- Growing up, Deborah lived in South Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Kenya due to her father’s Foreign Service career. She majored in economics and philosophy during her undergraduate studies at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa. After graduating, she worked at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C., and pursued, on a part-time basis, her Master of Arts in Writing at Johns Hopkins University, which she completed in May 2006. She now works and lives in Brooklyn, New York. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Amarillo Bay, Cadillac Cicatrix, Diner, Diverse Voices Quarterly, The Fiddleback, The MacGuffin, Marathon Literary Review, North Atlantic Review, Potomac Review, Prospectus: A Literary Offering, and Red Rock Review.
Joanell Serra, MFT lives and writes in Northern California. A long time creative writer, in addition to Blue Lake Review, in 2014 her work will appear in Eclectica and Black Fox Literary Magazine. She was also a winner of the 2014 California Writers Club Short Plays Contest. "Esperanza" will be included in her new collection, Sonoma Stories, which will be published in 2015. The characters from "Esperanza" will reappear throughout the book. Look for Serra’s blog and updates on her writing at http://joanellwrites.com.
Mir-Yashar Seyedbagheri is a self-proclaimed Romantic and graduate of Boise State University, with a BA in political science. He hopes to pursue an MFA in fiction. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Fat City Review, Postcard Shorts, The Bookends Review, Apocrypha and Abstractions, Microfiction Monday, The Turk's Head Review, Monkeybicycle, The Molotov Cocktail, and Brilliant Flash Fiction. Mir-Yashar lives in Boise, Idaho.
Richard Vihn is a student at Western Washington University. Spending more time reading than writing and walking than driving. He was born in Seattle and hopes to return someday.
Lauren Yates is a San Diego transplant who is currently based in Philadelphia. A prior contributor to BLR, her poetry has also appeared, or is forthcoming, in FRiGG, Melusine, The Bakery, and The Legendary. She enjoys belly dancing, baking quiche, and pontificating on the merits of tentacle erotica. For more information, visit http://laurentyates.com.