A journal of humanity and human experience

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We are currently seeking applicants for the positions of Poetry Editor and Nonfiction Editor.
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We are thrilled to announce the winners of the 2024 BLR Literary Prizes! 

As featured on NPR's Morning Edition

NPR’s Neda Ulaby reported on BLR‘s 20th Anniversary, featuring BLR Editor Danielle Ofri, along with author Celeste Ng. Long before Celeste Ng reached stratospheric popularity with Everything I Never Told You and Little Fires Everywhere, she was an emerging author, whose story “Girls, at Play” appeared in BLR and then won a Pushcart Prize.

Whiting Award Winner

BLR was awarded a Whiting Literary Magazine Prize for
“excellence in publishing, advocacy for writers, and a unique contribution to the strength of the overall literary community.”

BLR Off the Page

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Off The Page: BLR@20 – The Mona Lisa

Actor Kelly AuCoin reads the short story “The Mona Lisa” by Robert Oldshue as part of BLR’s 20th Anniversary Celebration.

The Christmas Patient

Blood draws dissolve into Christmas lights/
veins dizzy with the latest medications.

Beenie at Fourteen

While I wait for him to pull the trigger, I drive to the grocery store. Pick up milk, chewing gum, sponges. Drop off the dry cleaning: the dress I splattered with a spaghetti stain at Shana and Calvin’s wedding last month. Ignore the stench of the rotting plant in the backseat and keep the AC rippling.

On January 24th*

It’s been proven, they say— / the bills like a line of ants, / the glamour of the new year / grown dull like a tin ring

Telephone

These days I think of you/
on the yellow chaise/
with your Parkinson’s/ 
and hatred of telephones, 

House of Endurance

She called me to pick her up, but by the time I drove to the block,/
three men in total pandemic suits were walking her out.

The Wills of Twenty Strangers

It is eleven o’clock at night, and I am stomping around with half a skull in
my hand. “Where are all the goddamn pipe cleaners?” I ask the room.

Ambiguous Loss

It feels like holding a bird in one hand / and a bowling ball in the other.

Off The Page: The Gun Goes Off…

Deven Kolluri reads “The Gun Goes Off…,” a story by Ian Baaske

Praise & Recognition