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
  • 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

  • At the Mercy Meal

    At the Mercy Meal

    by Lindsay Starck. “If this scene—these baskets of bread, this mediocre rice, that parking lot awash with light—is familiar to me from all the other funerals we’ve attended here, how much more familiar is it to him? He drags his… // continue reading

  • Sisters

    Sisters

    by Sheila Kohler. “For a moment my sister seemed to hesitate, standing in the ghostly light of the moon, as though she were considering going back.” // continue reading

  • Printouts

    Printouts

    by Dylan Landis. “Janet reported that gray taffeta / curtained her walls. It was delicate. When touched, the ashen silk dissolved / around her thumbprint….” // continue reading

  • Before Another CT Scan

    Before Another CT Scan

    by Deborah Golub. “Think your lungs a forest cleared. / Your breath winged / as if it had a better place to go…” // continue reading

  • Letter to a Dead Mother

    Letter to a Dead Mother

    by Martha Silano. “Thinking of you as I pick up flecks of oats from the kitchen floor, / put them back in the container. You know, the five-second rule.” // 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