Madeline Blair
Writer, Editor, Filmmaker
Hailing from Chicago, Illinois, I am a writer and editor of poetry, short stories, creative nonfiction, screenplays, stage plays, articles, and research papers, and an award-winning filmmaker, with a BA in Creative Writing from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.I am the founder/editor-in-chief of Sabr Tooth Tiger Magazine, an international literary journal with claws, teeth, and heart. I have several published poems and press, listed below. I was once quoted in The New York Times on my passion for clean air.My work is often expressed through an effervescent, dreamlike, surrealist, and at times sardonic lens, but never lacks sincerity.
Published Poetry
'Warm Like Winter' & 'Empty Hour,' Sobotka Literary Magazine (forthcoming)
'on the seventh day, nothing bad came,' Libre Lit (forthcoming)
'Telegrim,' Okay Donkey (forthcoming)
'bee collector,' BULLSHIT LIT (forthcoming)
'Dear, It Will Be Bright,' Michigan City Review of Books (forthcoming)
'Q,' 'Arterial Motion,' & 'Blessed Be the Fruit,' The Prairie Review, Issue No. 17
'grocery,' FLARE Magazine, Issue 5
'interpretation of dreams,' Burial Magazine, 2.13.26
'Singing in the Night Air,' Milwaukee Avenue Messenger, Winter 2026
'[I'm thinking of how badly I want it],' Dodo Eraser, Issue 1
Two Meditations on a World Crashing Down, Expat Press, 1.3.26
'Nightshade' & 'Portrait of Christine de Pizan in the Queen's Manuscript,' Luna Luna Magazine, January Offering (2026)
'more light,' Sabr Tooth Tiger Magazine, Issue no. 1 (print/e-book only)
'Cleopatra Dissolving the Pearl,' Unfurl, Tender Bodies: Written on a Napkin Zine (print only)
'Neptune in Pisces' & 'Graceland Twice,' Raging Opossum Press, No. 5 (print only)
'praise song for the last hug,' Letters We Were Going to Burn But Published Instead, Feb. 2024
'A GIRL IS A GUN,' orangepeel magazine, Issue 4
'no. 13,' Ekphrasis Magazine, Winter 2022
'excerpt from 'heavenly bodies,'' The Collective Magazine, Issue 9 (print only)
'In Defense of Strange Times' & 'almost/always,' The Collective Magazine, Issue 8 (print only)
'Mythic Bitch,' The Collective Magazine, Issue 7 (print only)
Halcyon collected poems, 2020, self-published
Films (Writer/Director/Producer)
it was only a dream, 2024, SVC Nov. Shorts Fest
look I'm human, 2024, SVC Jul. Shorts Fest
What the Body Grasp Not, 2024, Peripheries Film & Video Festival
Tonesense, 2024
Neptune in Pisces, 2024, SVC Mar. Shorts Fest
dream x3, 2024, SVC Feb. Shorts Fest
lasso the moon, 2024, SVC Jan. Shorts Fest
Inner Child, 2023, SVC Sep. Shorts Fest
The Waiting Room, or Eggs in Purgatory, 2023, World Premiere at Chattanooga Film Festival (Best First Film), Cinema Soup Film Festival, Silicon Beach Film Festival, Sick Chick Flicks Film Festival, Blow-Up International Arthouse Filmiest (Semi-Finalist), SVC Jul. Shorts Fest
Plays (Writer/Director/Producer)
Nightingale Won't Remember by Tomorrow, 2022, performed at St. Andrews Lutheran Church, Champaign, Illinois
Press
"Madeline Blair - Sabr Tooth Tiger Magazine,' Lo Fi Lit
"Episode 85 - Lock In and Understand With Madeline Blair," Books with Betsy, Dec. 2025
"Interview: Madeline Blair and Sabr Tooth Tiger Magazine," Third Coast Review, Dec. 2025
"It's Okay, Chicago, Your Air Quality was Actually Fine on Wednesday," The New York Times, Apr. 2025
"Trailer Alert! THE WAITING ROOM, OR EGGS IN PURGATORY," The Scariest Things, Jul. 23
"Chattanooga Film Festival 2023: Fun Sized Epics," B&S About Movies, Jun. 2023
"Chattanooga Film Festival Offers the Frantic, the Freaky, and the Fun," HorrorFuel, May 2023
"Chattanooga 2023: First Wave Arrives With WE MIGHT HURT EACH OTHER, Fest Returns In Person And Online," ScreenAnarchy, May 2023
"Lights, camera, action: A student filmmaker’s creative productions," The Daily Illini, Apr. 2023
"Stand Out Illini: Madeline Udelhofen," The Daily Illini, Feb. 2023
"Writer and filmmaker Madeline Blair previews upcoming short film," Smile Politely, Mar. 2022
"Halcyon: a self-portrait in epic poetry," Smile Politely, Oct. 2021