About

Praise for BLP

“In nominating The Sojourn for the National Book Awards shortlist, the judges obviously passed over books published with more hoopla by bigger trade houses. Yet what better use is there for a literary prize than to draw attention to fine work that might otherwise be missed? So, this time, at least, the system has worked. We should be grateful all around—to Andrew Krivak for writing such a good book, to Bellevue Literary Press for publishing and promoting it, and to the National Book Award’s fiction jury for recognizing and honoring its excellence.” —MICHAEL DIRDA, Washington Post, November 3, 2011

“[A] popular refuge for well-regarded authors. . . . At a time when publishers increasingly see books as products and need to be convinced of their chances of selling at least 25,000 copies, Bellevue Literary Press thinks smaller and aims higher.” —Crain’s New York Business, October 14, 2011

“One notion currently making the rounds argues that small presses will be our salvation. The big six, as the dominant publishing houses are called, will continue to churn out the dreck of diet books, cookie-cutter thrillers and celebrity debasements, but the real feast will be set out by those little outlets nimble enough to find the next literary triumph. . . . I can't pretend to know the future of publishing, but I can testify to the astuteness of the staff at Bellevue Literary Press, tucked improbably into New York’s cavernous Bellevue Hospital.”—Cleveland Plain Dealer, November 20, 2011

“If you’re wondering whether the ‘Bellevue’ of the title refers to the nation’s first public hospital…you’re right: Bellevue Literary Press was born in 2007…. Most of Bellevue’s 20+ titles are decidedly not about health advice or medical advancements. Like the BLR pieces, the titles are loosely related to medicine and other sciences. Manuscripts qualify for submission if they “tell us something about the human condition.”
—Holt Uncensored, March 3, 2009

“Bellevue Literary Press - a small trade publisher launched in 2005 as part of the New York University School of Medicine, which counts among its early titles Michelle Latiolais' fine novel, "A Proper Knowledge" - must be lauded for its prescience in publishing this work [Tinkers by Paul Harding]. May more such marvels issue from its quarters….”
— San Francisco Chronicle, January 25th, 2009

 “A book by an unknown author, from a new and nearly unknown press, lands on a reviewer's desk. What are the chances it will command her attention? Or turn out to be a beautifully written meditation on life, death, the passage of time and man's eternal attempt to harness it? Not great, you might say. But Paul Harding's Tinkers defies expectations and proves to be one of 2009's most intriguing debuts.”
—Hartford Courant, January 4, 2009

“Some months ago I received an anthology from a heretofore unknown (to me) publisher, Bellevue Literary Press. Apparently I have been blessed to remain on their mailing list, as I have continued to receive their offerings.”
— The Morning News, December 10th, 2008

“Now the 271-year-old hospital is producing literature—and not just the medical kind…. Publishing insiders say the move from medicine to manuscripts is unusual and possibly unique….”
—Associated Press, August 23, 2007

“Up in a tiny office on the sixth floor of Bellevue Hospital Center sits the most unlikely tenant in this 271-year-old public institution: a fledgling publishing imprint….”
—The New York Times, March 1, 2007



 

Bellevue Literary Press (BLP), founded in 2005, publishes literary and authoritative fiction and nonfiction at the nexus of the arts and the sciences, with a special focus on medicine. As our authors explore cultural and historical representations of the human body, illness, and health, they address the impact of scientific and medical practice on the individual and society.

Our books target a general, educated readership, including medical and scientific professionals and academics interested in literate, jargon-free approaches to issues engaged by their practice. By bridging the gap between the arts and the sciences in original and artful ways, we promote science literacy to our nonprofessional readership and humane and ethical practice to medical and scientific professionals.

Bellevue Literary Press is a project of the New York University School of Medicine. While our standards reflect NYU’s excellence in scholarship, humanistic medicine, and science, we are not a university press. BLP is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization and depends on contributions from individuals and foundations for its operations.

Our books are distributed nationwide to bookstores and other outlets, including wholesalers, libraries, and specialty markets, by Consortium Book Sales and Distribution.

Founding Publisher's Statement

The mission of Bellevue Literary Press is to bring together medicine, science, and humanism through literature. The unifying theme of the press is the conviction that in sharing what Anatole Broyard termed “the wonder, terror, and exaltation of being on the edge of being” (Anatole Broyard, Intoxicated by My Illness), physicians and patients might be better informed, able to cope with the demands that illness imposes, and that medical care will be more humane.

The common starting point for understanding most things is a story. Even highly technical subjects and difficult concepts are made more understandable and palatable when they are set in the context of stories. Thinking of Einstein’s theory of relativity in relation to trains moving in opposite directions or dynamic equilibrium as balls bouncing against a sticky wall helps many of us to grasp the complex underlying principles. Medicine, with all the recent advances in the identification of common underlying mechanisms, and the discovery of new treatments, still begins with a patient’s story and those stories are embodied in good literature.

My interest in the importance of stories in medicine can be said to have begun when, on my teaching rounds at Bellevue Hospital, an intern started his presentation, “this 62 year old homeless man, was brought to the hospital…” I stopped him and asked. “What do you mean by homeless?” Never missing a beat, he replied, “undomiciled.” I assured him that I knew what the word meant but I wanted to know why this man was homeless. When he regained his composure, he was able to recall some of the history that he had gotten, but did not think to present. The man had recently come to NY from California, had no money and was sleeping on park benches. “What did he do in California?” “Oh, yes, I remember now, he had something to do with films, but I don’t know anything more.” After hearing about his breath sounds and abnormal blood gases we went to the bedside. I asked the man what he did in California and learned that he was a bit part movie actor. I asked if there was any film in which I might have seen him. His eyes brightened as he asked me if I had seen Klute, a film with Jane Fonda. “In that scene where this young woman goes into a bar and a guy talks with her…that was me.” None of us had seen the film; the house staff recognized that this “homeless man” seemed quite ill with pneumonia. The following day, the same intern announced that he had rented the video and indeed our homeless man was the actor. It did not change the fact that he went on to die of pneumocystis pneumonia, but all later agreed that the care he received and the way the house staff physicians experienced his death were very much affected when he ceased to be “a homeless man on morning rounds.” The message, that patients have names and stories, and that these matter a great deal when one is ill, is one that I have never forgotten.

Having spent my entire medical career caring for patients and teaching in Bellevue Hospital, I welcomed the opportunity to be one of the editors of the Bellevue Literary Review, created in 2001 by the Chief of Medicine, Dr. Martin Blaser. It was soon evident that stories were on the minds of many people, sick and well alike. The rapid success of the BLR prompted the daring step of establishing the Bellevue Literary Press in 2005.

— Jerome Lowenstein, New York City, March 2009

 

William Lee Frost

In Memory of William Lee Frost

Bill was an extraordinarily generous supporter of the Bellevue Literary Press. From its inception, he took a genuine interest in our efforts to create a small trade press devoted to issues of health, science, and the human condition. This was not surprising, since he had devoted much of his life to these concerns. He responded to our frequent requests for support and made the publication of many of our books possible.