25 years of creative writing on health, illness, and healing

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— Everything BLR

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— A new set of great reads with each click —

  • fiction
  • nonfiction
  • poetry
  • Beenie at Fourteen

    Beenie at Fourteen

    by Margaret Buckhanon. “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… // continue reading

  • Mushroom Death Suit

    Mushroom Death Suit

    by Tyriek White. “She shrunk away; a cold, spring evening. Like the harsh, white light to a newborn. Too many knives and machines and opening and closing. Stitching and restitching. Blood in and blood out.” // continue reading

  • Revolutions in Time

    Revolutions in Time

    by Elizabeth Lee. “…she is still young and doesn’t know postpartum depression, sleepless nights shredded by my wails, white suburban mothers’ pursed red lips as she picks me up from school in her laundromat clothes.” // continue reading

  • Double Exposure

    Double Exposure

    by Elisha Waldman. “Our hospital in Jerusalem feels haunted. Not, as one might think, by the ghosts of former patients, but rather by the living…” // continue reading

  • Carrying History

    Carrying History

    Sahar Delijani. “I am a child of the Iranian revolution. In 1983, my mother gave birth to me in Evin Prison, one of Iran’s most notorious jails.”  // continue reading

  • Iambic Pentameter and the Meter of War

    Iambic Pentameter and the Meter of War

    by Diane Cameron. “In the 1940’s, a young Marine returns from China to a small Pennsylvania town. One year later finds the body of the mother-in-law sprawled on the kitchen floor and the body of the wife in the living… // continue reading

  • Clínica Hispana

    Clínica Hispana

    by Hillary Kobernick. “I am reading Spanish posters / and wondering about stomach aches— / mine, mostly.” // continue reading

  • Crayons

    Crayons

    by Emily Sullivan Sanford. “Every spring I must explain my arms to children, / before my legs arrive in summer.” // continue reading

  • Blood Test

    Blood Test

    by Judith Harris. “These lone fires will never die out. / the roses still stagger in the embers; / Light is prolific, everywhere.” // continue reading

As featured on PBS News Hour’s CANVAS Series

Watch PBS News Hour’s Jeffrey Brown report on BLR’s 25th Anniversary, featuring BLR Editor Danielle Ofri and past BLR writers reflecting on why poetry, storytelling, and writing matter, especially in moments of illness.

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.”

Praise & Recognition