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

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— Everything BLR

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— Read interviews with BLR authors, editors, readers, and more —

— A new set of great reads with each click —

  • fiction
  • nonfiction
  • poetry
  • Coulrophobia

    Coulrophobia

    by Jacob M. Appel. “My father fancied himself a shrewd landlord—he refused to rent to lawyers, the children of lawyers, even a college girl who “had law school written all over her”—but he probably bit off too much when he… // continue reading

  • Periscope

    Periscope

    by Anne Elliott. “Caroline listened to the bellows under her bed, drawing and blowing air. The room asserted itself, always, its rhythmic hiss and pop of machinery, the anti-lullaby of metal cocoons, rows of them, each containing a complicated person.” // 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

  • Snapshots of Bellevue

    Snapshots of Bellevue

    by Sandra Opdycke. “When sick New Yorkers failed to find a place in private institutions like New York Hospital, they turned to public hospitals like Bellevue.” // continue reading

  • Flu Shot

    Flu Shot

    by David Watts. “She stands in my examining room unable to sit, pacing, then stopping tensely, as if paralyzed by the urge to pace. Three times she has made this appointment, three times a no-show.” // continue reading

  • Cancer, So Far

    Cancer, So Far

    by Elizabeth Crowell. “Last summer, the moths clung to the shingles of our house. They fluttered right past us, mottled wings snapping, through our open door.” // continue reading

  • Weaning: First Day of School

    Weaning: First Day of School

    by Wendy Wisner. “is out the window, along with a tinge /  of yellow on the oak trees. Last night I dreamt / I took my college job back—typing, data entry—” // continue reading

  • Worry Bone

    Worry Bone

    by Gibson Fay-LeBlanc. “Woke gnawing its remains.  Air/ had the brackish tinge of depths I had/ all night been swimming in.” // continue reading

  • Homage to My Radiated Hip

    Homage to My Radiated Hip

    by Laura E. Garrard. “I am finally kind to my broken body / when she pops her hip, limps her leg. // I do not shout down my spine / but coo and coax like a loving mother…” // 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