Mission | Background | Outreach | Staff | Board

Our Mission

Bellevue Literary Press is devoted to publishing literary fiction and nonfiction at the intersection of the arts and sciences because we believe that science and the humanities are natural companions for understanding the human experience. We feature exceptional literature that explores the nature of consciousness, embodiment, and the underpinnings of the social contract. With each book we publish, our goal is to foster a rich, interdisciplinary dialogue that will forge new tools for thinking and engaging with the world.

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Our Background

“Bellevue Literary Press is a small press in New York that publishes books about the intersection between the arts and sciences. It’s fascinating. Their books are just gems. It’s hard to find a Bellevue Literary Press book that, for me, doesn’t work.” —Nancy Pearl, KUOW’s The Record

Bellevue Literary Press is the first and only nonprofit press publishing at the arts-sciences nexus. Since 2007, we have been publishing prize-winning books that address the “big questions” of the human condition while promoting literature and the humanities to the science and medical communities and science literacy to a general readership.

Originally housed in historic Bellevue Hospital, BLP was established as a project of the New York University School of Medicine. The press departed NYU in the fall of 2018 to become a fully independent, nonprofit publisher. BLP 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.

Read about Bellevue Literary Press in Publishers Weekly and discover more about our history at NPR and in the New York Times, New York magazine, and Publishers Weekly.

 

Educational and Community Outreach

Bellevue Literary Press strives to publish books that enrich and engage and also to provide a platform for lively discussion and debate. By collaborating with academic and community organizations we are able to extend the reader’s experience beyond the page and inspire lively discourse in a variety of private and public venues including classrooms, clinics, libraries, scientific studies conferences, academic panels, and public forums.

Read more about the current activities in which BLP is involved.

 

Eco-Friendly Printing

Bellevue Literary Press, along with the manufacturers we use to produce our books, strives to protect the world’s endangered forests and conserve natural resources. We are committed to ecological stewardship in our book production practices, working to reduce the impact of our operations on the natural environment. Our books are printed on acid-free papers obtained from sustainable sources that are harvested responsibly. They are printed with soy and vegetable oil–based inks. Our manufacturers recycle the inks and solvents used in their processes; recycle their paper waste, aluminum plates, and corrugated cardboards; and ensure the proper handling of inks, solvents, and other chemicals to minimize waste and environmental exposure.

 

Our Staff

Publisher and Editorial Director Erika Goldman has been an editor of fiction and nonfiction at several major publishing houses in New York City, including St. Martin’s Press, Charles Scribner’s Sons, Simon & Schuster, and W. H. Freeman. A recipient of fellowships from Rendez-vous à Montreal-Québec Edition, the IV Programme in conjunction with IFOA Toronto, the Frankfurt Book Fair/German Book Office, and the Jerusalem International Book Fair, she has lectured and taught at the Yale Writers’ Conference, the Wesleyan Writers Conference, the New Hampshire Institute of Art, and New York University’s Center for Publishing.

Assistant Editor Laura Hart earned a BA from Auburn University and an MFA from Columbia University. She joined BLP in 2019 and previously worked at Writers House and the Columbia Journal.

 

Our Consultants

Publicity and Marketing Consultant Molly Mikolowski previously worked for Coffee House Press for ten years, where she acted as their marketing, publicity and sales director. The daughter of letterpress publishers, she has also worked as a bookseller and now runs A Literary Light, which helps independent publishers finds the broadest possible audience for their books.

Production & Design Consultant Joe Gannon has over forty years of experience in all aspects of book writing, editing, design, production, and distribution. He is the owner of a publishing services company, Mulberry Tree Press, Inc., and teaches at Hofstra University. He is the author of thirteen nonfiction titles.

 

Our Founding Publisher

Jerome Lowenstein, M.D., President and Founding Publisher, is the Nonfiction Editor for Bellevue Literary Review. He has been Professor of Medicine at New York University School of Medicine since 1977 and a practicing physician for over four decades. In 1979 he initiated the Program for Humanistic Aspects of Medical Education at New York University School of Medicine, which has become the model for many other similar programs at medical schools across the country. He is the author of Henderson’s EquationThe Midnight Meal and Other Essays about Doctors, Patients, and Medicine, and Acid and Basics: A Guide to Understanding Acid-Base Physiology. He is the recipient of the 2008-2009 NYU Distinguished Teaching Award.

Founder’s Statement

 

 

Our Board of Directors

Martin Blaser

Martin J. Blaser, MD, holds the Henry Rutgers Chair of the Human Microbiome at Rutgers University and serves as Director of the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine. Previously he served as Chair of the Department of Medicine at New York University. A physician and microbiologist, Dr. Blaser has been studying the relationships we have with the human microbiome, the bacteria that live in and on us. Over the last 20 years, he has also been actively studying the relationship of the human microbiome with both health and important diseases including asthma, obesity, diabetes, and cancer. Dr. Blaser has been the advisor to many students, post-doctoral fellows, and faculty. He has served as President of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, Chair of the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Cancer Institute, Chair of the Advisory Board for Clinical Research of the NIH, and until recently as Chair of the Presidential Advisory Council for Combatting Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria (PACCARB) under 3 presidential administrations. He has been elected to major academies and received many awards for his scientific work. He has authored over 650 original scientific articles, holds 24 US patents, and he also wrote Missing Microbes, a book targeted to general audiences, now translated into 20 languages. Recently he appeared in The Invisible Extinction, an independent feature film focusing on his scientific work and that of his wife, Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello.


Lawrence H. Budish retired as a partner at Proskauer Rose LLP, a major international law firm headquartered in New York City. Larry specialized in private equity and mergers and acquisitions, with a concentration in transactions in the media and business information industries. In addition to his legal experience, Larry has extensive experience with financial matters and fundraising for not-for-profit entities as a board member, past president, and longtime fundraising chairman for his synagogue.


Matty Goldberg has had a 45-year career in publishing and bookselling, capped by his position as VP, Sales and Acquisitions for Ingram Publisher Services. Over that period, Matty spent time on both sides of the proverbial desk: as a bookseller and warehouse manager, as a buyer, and merchandise director first for the long-gone Golden-Lee Book Distributors, then Barnes & Noble, and finally at Brentano’s/Waldenbooks. At Barnes & Noble, he oversaw the successful creation and launch of the first B&N superstores. On the publishing side of the business, he had numerous positions as sales rep, sales director, and ultimately as VP, Sales and Marketing for the newly-founded Perseus Books Group. A self-described collection of “startups and castoffs,” Perseus grew to be a company with revenues of over $500M before it was split and sold to Ingram and the Hachette Book Group. At Ingram, he continued as one of the sales directors for Ingram Publisher Services but also took on responsibility for Acquisitions for Two Rivers Distribution.  He brought on F&W Media, David R. Godine, Spiegel & Grau, Barrons Educational, Welbeck Publishing Group, Bard Press, Zando, and others.


Liz Grefrath is an associate in the Securities Litigation practice group at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP. Prior to joining the firm, she worked for a decade at the American Civil Liberties Union as the Special Assistant to the National Legal Director and spent several years as an oral historian at Columbia University. Her arts experiences include institutional fundraising at the Public Theater, researching public arts funding policy at the Alliance for the Arts, and producing dramas for small theater groups in New York City, including the NYC and Capitol Fringe Festivals. Liz has also completed stints of service on the Board of her cooperative apartment building in Crown Heights and was a member of Community Board 8 in Brooklyn. She has a B.A. from Columbia University and a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School. Liz is married to the novelist Joshua Furst, with whom she has two children, Ernie and Warren.


Gloria Jacobs

Gloria Jacobs is a consultant on arts, literature, and the women’s movement. From 2006 to 2013, she was Executive Director of the Feminist Press at CUNY, and from 1996 to 2002 she was the Executive Editor of Ms. magazine. Her articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Daily News, The Guardian (UK), Working Mother, New York Woman, and Mother Jones, among others. She has also served as a consultant to the United Nations Women’s Development Fund where she produced the groundbreaking report, Women, War, Peace, which sought to tell the story of the impact of war on women through personal narrative. She is a board member of Girls Write Now, the writing and mentoring program for teen girls, as well as on Bellevue’s advisory board and is a past board member and chair of Women’s eNews.


photo of Robert Kertzner Robert Kertzner, MD, Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Columbia University, is an academic and clinical psychiatrist with publications in HIV psychiatry, sexual minority mental health, adult developmental and aging, bereavement, and clinical-ethical topics such as the receipt of gifts offered by patients in psychotherapy and challenges when working with patients holding different political viewpoints. He is the former Training Director of a NIMH postdoctoral training program in HIV Behavioral Sciences at Columbia University and recipient of the Cammer Award for Excellence in Teaching in Psychiatry. He continues his role in psychiatric education as a lecturer and psychotherapy supervisor for residents in training. Dr. Kertzner is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.


 Jerome Lowenstein

Jerome Lowenstein, MD, President and Founding Publisher, was, until recently, the Nonfiction Editor for Bellevue Literary Review. He has been Professor of Medicine at New York University School of Medicine since 1977 and a practicing physician for over four decades. In 1979 he initiated the Program for Humanistic Aspects of Medical Education at New York University School of Medicine, which has become the model for many other similar programs at medical schools across the country. He is the author of Zichronot/Memories; Henderson’s Equation; The Midnight Meal and Other Essays about Doctors, Patients, and Medicine; They Call It a Halo; and Acid and Basics: A Guide to Understanding Acid-Base Physiology.


Kathleen Masterson is a retired Director of Literature and Theatre at the New York State Council on the Arts and of the Arts Education Program. At NYSCA, she initiated long-lived technical assistance programs for literary publishers and presenters of contemporary writers. She is a librettist and has written with opera, new music and musical theatre composers including the late Jeff Langley and David M. Bishop. Commissioned works include Buffalo Nation (Bison bison), a large ensemble piece with composer Jerome Kitzke published by Peer Music International. Kathleen serves on the boards of Franklin Stage Company in the Western Catskills and Gingold Theatrical Group in NYC and was a co-founder of the Spencer Cherashore Fund, which provided artistic development grants to actors in middle-career. She has been an admirer of the essential Bellevue Literary Press since its inception.


DavidOshinsky-sm

David Oshinsky, PhD, is the director of the Division of Medical Humanities at NYU School of Medicine and a professor in the NYU Department of History. Previously, Dr. Oshinsky was at the University of Texas at Austin, where he received the university’s Raymond Dickson Centennial Teaching Award. He graduated from Cornell University and obtained his PhD from Brandeis University.

An accomplished writer and American historian, he is the author of several books, which include A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy, which won the Hardeman Prize for the best book about the U.S. Congress, and Worse Than Slavery, which won the Robert F. Kennedy Prize for distinguished contribution to human rights. His latest book, Polio: An American Story, won both the Pulitzer Prize in History and the Hoover Presidential Book Award. In 2009, PBS aired a documentary based upon this work, “The Polio Crusade,” and he received the Dean’s Medal from the Bloomberg-Johns Hopkins School of Public Health for his distinguished contributions to the field. His articles and reviews appear regularly in the New York Times and other national publications.


Daniel Ray

Daniel Ray, as Vice President of Management Science Associates (a multinational market research company), worked for nearly three decades with major corporations including American Express, HBO, and Kraft General Foods. His focus was on advertising, pricing, and new product development where he created analytical methodologies to solve challenging marketing issues. As a specialist in his field, he was often an invited speaker at national industry conferences and seminars on issues relating to the analysis of market research data.

Daniel grew up in France and, after passing the Baccalaureat, moved to England. (His first job happened to be at Foyles, then the largest bookstore in the world.) Once he became fluent in English he was accepted with full scholarship at the University of Wales, where he received Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Electrical Engineering.

Ironically, before moving to the United States, this French son of Jewish refugees was awarded the Coventry Cathedral Fellowship, spending a year in Berlin as an exchange engineer in the name of reconciliation between England and Germany.

A man of many interests, Daniel co-founded and played keyboard for the Raytones—a jazz, blues and early rock n’ roll band—that performed in the New York metro area for over a decade (once even accompanying actor/singer Bill Murray).


Oliver SacksProfessor of Neurology, NYU School of Medicine (member in memoriam)


Jan Vilcek

Jan T. Vilcek, MD, PhD, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Microbiology at NYU Langone Medical Center, earned his degrees in Bratislava, Slovakia (then Czechoslovakia). He is among the earliest researchers of interferon, and of another regulatory protein called tumor necrosis factor (TNF). Dr. Vilcek’s work was instrumental in the development of the anti-inflammatory drug infliximab (Remicade®), the first member of a new class of therapeutics widely used for the treatment of Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and other chronic inflammatory disorders. Dr. Vilcek has published more than 350 papers in scholarly journals, and he is co-inventor of 38 US patents. In 2000 Dr. Vilcek and his wife established The Vilcek Foundation, whose main mission is to honor outstanding contributions of immigrants to the sciences and arts in the United States. He received NYU’s Albert Gallatin Medal, is an honorary alumnus of NYU School of Medicine, and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He received the J. E. Purkynie Honorary Medal from the Czech Academy of Sciences, and the Outstanding American by Choice Award from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. He is an honorary member of the Learned Society of the Czech Republic, recipient of the Gold Medal of Charles University in Prague, and recipient of honorary degrees from the Comenius University in Bratislava, the CUNY Graduate Center, and NYU. In 2013, he received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation from President Barack Obama. In 2016, his memoir Love and Science was published by Seven Stories Press.


Nicholas Fox Weber is a cultural historian and has been the Executive Director of the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation for the past four decades. During this time he has worked tirelessly to preserve the lasting achievements and legacies of the Alberses. He has written extensively on each artist and other books of his include artists such as Le Corbusier and Balthus. His latest work, a definitive biography of Piet Mondrian, will be published in September 2024. He also spearheads Le Korsa, a nonprofit organization he founded in 2005 to assist with medical care and education in Senegal.


Mieko Willoughby is President and CEO of Headlands Asset Management LLC, a private equity investment firm located in San Rafael, California, with executive headquarters in Manhattan. Prior to co-founding Headlands, Ms. Willoughby was Senior Managing Director at Bear, Stearns & Co., Fixed Income Sales & Trading, 1992-2008. Ms. Willoughby is one of the original members of the Bellevue Literary Press Advisory Board.


Our Advisory Board

Thomas Campbell Jackson is a member of BLP’s advisory board and a private investor active in film, theater, and publishing. He is a venture partner at Easton Capital Investment Group and has over two decades of experience in health affairs, including as director of the City of New York’s Health Benefits Program for over a million municipal employees, retirees, and dependents. He has advised municipalities, companies, and nonprofits on health and insurance policy, and has sat on the boards of several tech startups. Mr. Jackson has served on the Board of Advisors of the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the Columbia Alumni Association, and was Board President of the Imagine Science Film Festival, and Imaginal Disc Productions. With his wife and daughter he helms the Brandt Jackson Foundation, with broad interests in the arts and sciences.

Matthew Bucknor, MD, MFA, is an Associate Professor and the Associate Chair for Wellbeing and Professional Climate in the UCSF Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging. He also serves as Executive Sponsor of Differences Matter, a multi-year UCSF School of Medicine initiative designed to promote equity, belonging, and anti-oppression at UCSF. He earned a BA in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard University, an MD from Stanford School of Medicine, and an MFA in Creative Writing from the Warren Wilson Program for Writers. He is an Executive Board Member of the Pegasus Physician Writers at Stanford, where he has led monthly writing workshops since 2013. His creative writing has been published in Intima and Aaduna and has received awards from Glimmer Train, The Sewanee Review, and Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.


Bruce Morrow has 29 years of experience in fundraising and nonprofit leadership. He has worked with the Misty Copeland Foundation, The Trevor Project, GLAAD, Girl Scouts of the USA, Bank Street College of Education, and Teachers & Writers Collaborative. He is a former fiction editor at Callaloo and a co-editor of Shade: An Anthology of Fiction by Gay Men of African Descent. His writing has been published in the New York Times, Speak My Name: Black Men on Masculinity and the American Dream, and Freedom in this Village: Twenty-Five Years of Black Gay Men’s Writing. He holds a BS in Biology from RIT and an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University,


 

Jennifer H. Pien, MD, is a Clinical Associate Professor and Stanford Medical Humanities & Arts faculty through the Department of Psychiatry at Stanford University. In addition to her clinical work for physician well-being, she is the Director of Health Narratives at Stanford: The Pegasus Physician Writers, Founder of The Pegasus Review, and faculty editor for the Oxford Review of Books x Stanford collaboration. She also serves on the Advisory Board for the Stanford School of Medicine Medical Humanities Fellowship. Her interests include advocacy for adults with developmental disabilities and the intersection of creative writing and medical humanities. Her forthcoming debut novel is represented by Lisa Grubka, United Talent Agency, and her nonfiction work is represented by Amy Collins, Talcott Notch Literary.