After frequenting a lot of coffee-shop poetry readings, and meeting Mr. Bobby Star (R.L. Nichols) of X-it Press, Melody Sherosky started a poetry zine with a friend who was also a well-known local poet. It was 1992 when the first BMR showed up locally in Erie, Pennsylvania. With the help of Bobby Star, who was very involved in the "underground" small press at the time, BMR made a lot of contacts and expanded more every year.

People appeared and disappeared when it came to the actual production of the magazine, and for most of the time Melody put it together herself or with whoever had free time to volunteer. Joann Calabrese, Crista Williams, Dan at Erie's local Kinko's, Keith at CopyMax, and many other people helped over the years.

A lot of other zine-sters/small press people helped BMR grow, most prominently Gregg Johnson of Torpedo Magazine, Koala Syndicate Records & The Flashing Astonishers, David Woodson of By Rocket to the Moon, Ian Griffin of Green Bean Press, and D.M. McNamara of www.vikingraidingparty.com & formerly )ISM( .

In the beginning, BMR was horribly full of clip-art, and the covers were patched together at the last minute. Luckily, many talented artists came into the picture. Some of our prominent cover artists are Ben Dewey, David Woodson (again, wow, he sure was helpful), Barry VanOphuizen, and Mark Gardner, our current "resident" artist.

Since 1999, BMR has gained considerable stability. We are listed in The Poet's Market, Light's List, and The Directory of Small Press/Magazine Editors & Publishers. Nathan Condron committed to working with us full time in 2002, and our small press network is a lot larger. BMR is now available at many university libraries (in the US & Australia), and locally in Denver, CO at the Tattered Cover Bookstore.

To see how far we have come over the years, check out our back-issues.