Books & Published Works

Blue California Sky

AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER FROM Finishing Line Press

“A ruminative look at grief and our lives through the small moments of nature.” – Kristine Eckart, Independent Book Review

“A gorgeous collection that brims with sagacity and compassion; haunting and beautiful.” – The Prairies Book Review

“A stunner.” – BookView Review

“Thoughtful, engaging, and arresting.” – Jennifer Jackson, Indies Today

Blue California Sky is both homage to the varied and rich landscapes of California and poignant glimpses into the human experience: grief, trauma, loss, change, and also love, joy, wonder, and connection—to one’s self, to others, and to the natural world. Expressed in accessible yet poetic prose, the poems in Blue California Sky are haunting, lyrical, and powerful.

Included in the collection is poem “Once each year,” nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2022 and winner of the 2023 Los Gatos Poetry Contest awarded by the town’s poet laureate, in addition to three poems featured in the Fevers of the Mind Poetry Showcase in August of 2023.

MEASURES

AVAILABLE NOW ON AMAZON

“As its poems tread through forests, over mountains, and along the water . . . Measures captivates.”   — Clarion Reviews

“[B. L. Bruce’s] newest poetry collection, Measures, by turns elicits tenderness and melancholy, hopefulness and heartbreak—which is to say, the gamut of the human condition. . . . Bruce’s collection offers many accomplished and memorable moments.”   — BlueInk Review

In Measures, B. L. Bruce’s third collection of poetry, the author deftly explores the visual measures of time and the nature of change in her celebrated, nuanced verse.

In this latest collection featuring nearly sixty new poems—including works in new formats like micropoetry and American haiku—award-winning poet B. L. Bruce again echoes the lyricism and rich imagery that readers have come to praise.

THE STARLING’S SONG

PACIFIC RIM BOOK FESTIVAL HONORABLE MENTION

“There is nothing to say that would be as lyrical and eloquent as this poet’s language. She writes as a daughter of California’s wild places. Words lift the edge of ordinary and invite the reader to journey through vivid and vulnerable landscapes.” – Karen K. Lewis, Author and Executive Director at Mendocino Coast Writer’s Conference

The Starling’s Song was written entirely during a four-week-long stay in a rustic cabin in the remote forests of Northern California, where this unique backdrop guided much of her work in this collection.

28 DAYS OF SOLITUDE: A Memoir

Written during her twenty-eight-day stay in a small cabin in the remote mountain forests of Northern California, author B. L. Bruce chronicles the daily life of a writer at work. In the wake of her award-winning poetry collection, The Weight of Snow, 28 Days of Solitude moves the focus away from the creative work and toward the often-overlooked creator.

Offering insights into her personal thoughts of the craft and its importance in her life before and during her residency, Bruce’s memoir aims to give readers a glimpse into the psyche of a writer.

THE WEIGHT OF SNOW

2014 International Book Awards Finalist
2014 San Francisco Book Festival Honorable Mention
2014 USA Best Book Awards “Poetry” Category Finalist

“The poems in The Weight of Snow are heartfelt, skillfully written, and keenly observed fragments of the natural world and our lives there. Bravo.” – Gary Young, Poet Laureate of Santa Cruz County, Award-Winning Author of No Other Life, Braver Deeds, and Pleasure

In The Weight of Snow, author B. L. Bruce explores the many plights of the human species, from the mysteries of the heart and the inescapability of death, to the depths of human emotion. Told from the perspective of a poetic naturalist, Bruce shares her appreciation of the wild, illuminating the profound in the mundane while chronicling the natural world as both an observer and as an irrefutable part of it. Her poems focus strongly on image and locality, conjuring the imaginations of readers and celebrating the beauty in the follies of the human condition and its capacity to grip the soul.

OTHER PUBLICATIONS:

For complete publication history, visit https://www.bribruceproductions.net/bribrucecv

Haiku widely published in:

– Two prose poems “A few days ago” and “Come spring” published in The Passionfruit Review’s February 2024 issue
– Three poems “On Crystal Peak,” “The morning you left,” and “There’s only so much I can do” published in Beaver Magazine’s “Beneath” Issue, January 2024
– Poem “Name all the ways a body changes” published in The Winged Moon, Issue 5
– Three poems “Roses along the state park overpass,” “During the worst of it,” and “It takes a woman’s naked body” published in Fevers of the Mind Poetry Showcase, August 2023
– Two poems “When we came to live in the little yellow house” and “In the wind” published in Gone Lawn’s Issue 49, Summer Solstice Issue
– Three poems “I feel sorry for you,” “What happens when the magic dissipates,” and “In the beginning” published by MOONLOVE press
– Two poems “So much was lost in the heatwave” and “I saw the way grief entered your body” published in Riverstone Literary Journal’s March 2023 issue
– Poem “Years gone” published by Blue Heron Review’s Spring 2023 issue, “Sanctuaries and Places of Peace”
– Poem “It seems only a matter of days” published in Fulminare Review’s “Citrus” issue
– Poem “I find it curious” published in the October 2022 Volume I issue of Bivouac Magazine
– Poem “It’s a warm evening before April” published by Red Wolf Journal, May 2022
– Two poems “This is a language” and “Nightfall” published by The Sunlight Press
– Poem “Once Each Year” Published by The Lakeshore Review inaugural issue, May 2022
– Poem “North” published The Things Unsaid September 2021 Issue 2
– Poem “Cachagua Road” published in Feral‘s “Love Issue
– Poem “Dark Star” published by Emerge Literary Journal
– Poem “Ration” published by Blood Moon Journal
– Poems “North,” “Enterprise,” and “Mockingbird” published in Visitant (November 2020)
– Poems “Full Moon at Albion River” and “Vermont” published in Le Merle Poetry Journal (November 2020)
– Poems “Miracle” and “When I Die” published in The Remnant Archive (September 2020)
– Haiku Poem “Ice carved valley/sun-shimmer/of granite” published in the American Haiku Society’s Frogpond Journal 2020
– Poem “Dark Star” published in November 2020 issue of Emerge Literary Journal
– Two photographs (“White Duck” and “Row of Trees”) published in Issue 2 of Near Window
– Poems “Miracle” and “When I Die” published in the Autumn 2020 issue of The Remnant Archive
– Poem “Tempest” published by Canary Literary Magazine, December 2017
– The Starling’s Song published April 2016, Black Swift Press
– Poem “At Henry Cowell State Park, Early Winter” published in “GriefINK: Tattoo as the Language of Grief” by Susan Salluce (Dec. 2015)
– The Weight of Snow: New & Selected Poems (Tayen Lane Publishing/Smooth Stones Press, 2015) Hardcover Edition
– Poem “Salt” published in Common Ground Review’s 2015 issue 1
– 28 Days of Solitude (August 2015), Black Swift Press
– Poem “Feel” published in Purple Passion Press’s spring 2015 anthology
– Poems “Forebearance” and “Pulse” published in the January 15th issue (Issue 30) of Damselfly Press (2015)
– Poems “Rainsong” and “Hailstorm” published in PushPen Press‘s anthology, Three (2014)
– Poem “Eggs for Dumplings” published in inaugural issue of Los Gatos This Week (October 2014)
– The Weight of Snow: New & Selected Poems (February 2014), Black Swift Press
– Poems “Clay,” “What Remains,” “Memory,” “Narrowed,” “Ghost,” “Between the Hours,” and “The Unlearning of Fear” included in Tayen Lane Publishing’s Poems from Conflicted Hearts: An Anthology (March 2014) alongside Poet Laureate Alice Shapiro
– Poetry published in Celebrate! Young Poets Speak Out (2003), Chinquapin Magazine (2009), Tattoo Highway (2011), Red Fez Entertainment (2011), The Avocet Review (2012), Northwind Magazine (2012), The Cossack (2012), phren-Z Magazine (2012), The Soundings Review (2013), Third Wednesday (2013), The Wayfarer Journal / Homebound Publications (2013), 2River View (2013), and
– Photo essay published in Atom Magazine (2012)
– Surfrider Foundation, Santa Cruz Chapter newsletter, Ocean’s Roar (2010)
– Photographs published in Matchbox Magazine (2011), Ampersand Magazine (2011), and The Mountain Network News (2012), and The Sun Magazine (2013)

38 thoughts on “Books & Published Works”

  4. Thank you for following my blog! I am excited to read some of your poetry work (I love poetry also), and I am excited you also do copy editing : )

    Reply

    1. Thank you so, so much! If you’ve enjoyed this poem and some of my other posts, I would encourage you to take a look at the entire collection, “The Weight of Snow: New & Selected Poems” available as a paperback from Amazon and as an eBook at all major e-bookstores!

      http://www.amazon.com/Weight-Snow-New-Selected-Poems/dp/0991450310/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1391276879&sr=1-1&keywords=the+weight+of+snow
      http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-weight-of-snow-b-l-bruce/1118461000?ean=2940148189459
      http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/the-weight-of-snow
      https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-theweightofsnownewselectedpoems-1418553-244.html

      Reply

  5. Thanks for introducing yourself by following our site. We look forward to exploring yours. If you’re on Facebook we also invite you to visit the RAXA Collective page. See you there!

    Reply

  11. From the very striking cover alone, the vividness of your words and passages make me want to be right in the centre of your imagination, living the moments you distinctly describe in your poems. Poetry and poignancy at their best! Congratulations on this brilliant debut offering. I wish I can get the same excellent reviews for my own book, but I am simply astounded at this gem of a tome.

    Reply

  15. Hi, and thanks for your Follow at ‘Pages from a Nature-Lover’s Diary’. ( I’m returning it.) Your book looks/sounds beautiful. ( Very lovely & engaging cover; I assume you designed it?) Your photos that I viewed are striking & beautiful. I think we have a lot in common with our connection to nature and poetry, as well as graphic design & photography.

    Reply

  19. Hi! Thanks for following my site. I am eagarly waiting to read your published works. Meanwhile, please could you take out the time to give your comments on my collection, one at a time, if you can? It’ll be a motivation for me and also a learning experience.

    Reply

    1. Thank you so much! I feel honored that you found my work fascinating. I appreciate the blog post and the analysis. It’s really humbling to know what readers think of what I write and for you to feel compelled enough to write about it… well, that’s a big compliment. Much appreciated. Thank you for sharing! 🙂

      Reply

  22. Hi Bri! Thank you for visiting my blog. I appreciate your kind words. Writing in English is one of the biggest achievements in my life. But if you check out The Knowledge Keeper you will see what my motivation was. In every fiction story there is a little bit of truth. Look forward to reading The Weight of Snow!

    Reply

  25. Reading “The Weight of Snow” was an emotionally and intellectually rewarding experience. I lived several years in the United States and English is my second language, but I have not seem, for instance, all the flowers, trees and birds you mention. Then I did a first reading at a, let’s say, general meaning level, trying to connect to the feelings you express on each poem; then I proceeded to a second reading, finding the images for each living creature (English word ->scientific name -> image) I was not familiar with, trying to connect to the images you project with your poetry. I enjoyed both readings and found many lines that are full of meaning in a universal sense, shared by most human beings. I would include among these: “[…] the wisdom of endings – the songs of the river silenced, snow-veiled trees unmoving – the heaviness of nothing.” from “ENDINGS” or “[…] wishing there were more ways to stay what moments we no longer keep.” from “INDIAN SUMMER.”
    I loved you poems and wish you write more books! Thanks;

    Reply

    1. thank you so much! I so appreciate all of your kind words and am very happy that you enjoyed my book! I also appreciate your review. Is this something you’d be interested in putting on Amazon?
      Thanks! 🙂

      Reply

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