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

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  • fiction
  • nonfiction
  • poetry
  • 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

  • The Veil Thins

    The Veil Thins

    by Fiona Ennis. “She was being tugged somewhere unearthly, towards a radiant light source, the same colour as those long fluorescent white lights that buzzed in the kitchen in the convent.” // continue reading

  • The Sounds of Jilotzingo

    The Sounds of Jilotzingo

    by Mehr-Afarin Kohan. “Now her praying to the clouds sounded stupid because I was old enough to know that nothing and no one would ever be descending. And old enough to know, something had broken in my mother’s backbone forever.” // continue reading

  • 1 a.m. Refill

    1 a.m. Refill

    by Rebecca Grossman-Kahn. “It’s 1:00 a.m. and the emergency department is cold. The bright overhead lights illuminate the rows of empty desk chairs. I hear the tap-tap of rubber clogs shuffling in a far corner. There are only two patients… // continue reading

  • A Pure and Lovely Flame

    A Pure and Lovely Flame

    by Sandy Woodson. “For Descartes, the pineal gland is a magical place where our souls and personality and identity shimmer in a night sky.” // continue reading

  • By the Neck

    By the Neck

    by Laura Johnsrude. “Suddenly, the baby’s head was in my hands and I saw the umbilical cord wrapped around the baby’s neck—the neck, oh my, with all those critical bits of anatomy. I held that big slippery baby head in… // continue reading

  • The Rice-Eating Ceremony

    The Rice-Eating Ceremony

    by Sonia Sarkar. “Nine months into my life, I am asked to eat on command / These tiny bursts of cylindrical snow that will reappear / Again and again…” // continue reading

  • The Healer

    The Healer

    by Nylah Lyman. “For months, her determined hands / coaxed the sickness up and out of my lungs / until it came to rest, eventually, in her own—” // continue reading

  • House Staff

    House Staff

    by Sandra Gustin. “I don’t remember if I ever cleaned my house. I’m sure we / never heard birdsong. Some cried. Some of us got quite thin.” // 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