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

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  • fiction
  • nonfiction
  • poetry
  • Bound

    Bound

    by Sam Schieren. “He had been looking at his mother. There was a look on her face he will never forget, like she’d seen through to the other side.” // continue reading

  • The Gun Goes Off and At First No One Knows Who’s Been Hit

    The Gun Goes Off and At First No One Knows Who’s Been Hit

    by Ian Baaske. “Someone’s died. I know this because of vague posts on Facebook. It can’t be anyone I know very well, or I’d have texts or phone calls or, well, something.” // continue reading

  • The Facts

    The Facts

    by Mark Rigney. “Occasional lapses in taste or discretion within this narrative are entirely intentional. So, if it seems inappropriate to interrupt a tragic drowning with observations about the nesting habits of local birds, then consider this…” // continue reading

  • No One Thing

    No One Thing

    by Laura LeMoon. “The things I’ve had to do to survive were part of the price I paid to be seen…Freedom in one moment became bondage in the next. Chains exploded into power. No one thing is any one thing.” // continue reading

  • Lone Wolf

    Lone Wolf

    by Ellen Gunnarsdottir. “‘That’s just how he is, our dear doctor,’ people would say, and by this would they meant that it was this very energy that had sent him to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin as a member of… // continue reading

  • Distance

    Distance

    by Mallika Sekhar. “The ward doctor rang me late in the night to say that the Judge had been admitted with COVID-19 and was not doing well. He wasn’t deemed fit for ICU because of his age and his prior… // 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