About

Publishing from 2017 to 2021, The Bare Life Review was the only literary journal devoted entirely to the work of immigrant and asylum-seeking writers. Its four print issues and online forum featured the work of over ninety artists from sixty distinct nations, publishing first-time authors as well as winners and finalists for the Pulitzer and Booker Prizes, and the National Book Award.

Today, its legacy continues in the form of the annual Bare Life Review Grants, awarded to in-progress collections of fiction or poetry.

Recent Books by TBLR Contributors

  • THE FURROWS | Namwali Serpell

  • THE TEETH OF THE COMB | Osama Alomar

  • HOW TO SAY BABYLON | Safiya Sinclair

  • BOOMTOWN GIRL | Shubha Sunder

  • SELF-PORTRAIT WITH GHOST | Meng Jin

  • TEA BY THE SEA | Donna Hemans

  • TYRANT MEMORY | Horacio Castellanos Moya

  • THE RUPTURE TENSE | Jenny Xie

  • A THOUSAND TIMES YOU LOSE YOUR TREASURE | Hoa Nguyen

  • WHEN YOUR SKY RUNS INTO MINE | Rooja Mohassessy

  • MY GAZA: A CITY IN PHOTOGRAPHS | Jehad Saftawi

  • THE COMPENSATION BUREAU | Ariel Dorfman

  • A BODY ACROSS TWO HEMISPHERES | Victoria Buitron

  • LANDFALLS | Naomi J. Williams

  • SYNONYMS FOR SILENCE | A. Molotkov

  • THE GHOSTS OF OTHER IMMIGRANTS | Maija Mäkinen

  • GLORY | Noviolet Bulawayo

  • THE PLAYWRIGHT’S HOUSE | Dariel Suarez

  • TRUST | Hernán Díaz

  • IMELDA MARCOS | Nathan Go

  • EX MACHINA | Joan Naviyuk Kane

  • SOLITO | Javier Zamora

  • SPEAK FROM HERE TO THERE | Kwame Dawes & John Kinsella