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
  • Shaking the Dead Geranium 

    Shaking the Dead Geranium 

    by Harriet Rzetelny. “By age sixteen, he’d won a full scholarship to Emory College. By eighteen, he was convinced that my mother was sucking the life fluids out of his brain and went after her with a bread knife.” // continue reading

  • Numbers

    Numbers

    by Marcia Calhoun Forecki. “Even numbers are smooth and sweet, and can all be divided by two, which is the most perfect number of all because two means love: husband and wife, mother and child, man and dog. That should… // continue reading

  • The Tribulations of Uncle Ned

    The Tribulations of Uncle Ned

    by Stephanie Wrobel. “I knew years ago that the paternal gene was missing. I should not, would not, be relied on by other humans, especially small, defenseless ones.” // continue reading

  • Rubies of Babylon

    Rubies of Babylon

    by Tim Suermondt. “I lie back a little dreamlike, / let Mary Immaculate take the blood she needs. / The sun has found its way inside, / enveloping all of us in its light—” // continue reading

  • My Mother is a Fish

    My Mother is a Fish

    by Kailey Tedesco. “My mother’s old kimono cradles me / so that I can become a fish, wet with / water I can drape about my shoulders.” // continue reading

  • Valentine

    Valentine

    by Chelsea Krieg. “For minutes,/ I watch his heart: ventricles contracting, / blood pumping – my other silent pulsing center.” // 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