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
  • Mad Love

    Mad Love

    by Acamea Deadwiler. “You don’t know hunger. Not like we did. You don’t know hunger that surpasses pain. When your body is too weak to send distress signals. When your organs have shifted from fight to flight, to surrender. When… // continue reading

  • In Between Time

    In Between Time

    by Eric Jones. “Pain made me a precocious student of time, each middle ear infection a new lesson on the uncatchable instant.” // continue reading

  • Our Psychedelic Minibreak 

    Our Psychedelic Minibreak 

    by Sunny Teich. “I am Googling the best places to get magic mushrooms. It’s important to stress here that I am the squarest person who has ever lived.” // continue reading

  • Toast

    Toast

    by Michael Montlack. “Once a woman who lost her mother / told me the story of a guru rushing / to satisfy his dying mentor’s last wish.” // continue reading

  • Intimate Contact 

    Intimate Contact 

    by Elisavet Makridis. “To straighten her spinal column, / Frida suspends nearly vertical / with sacks of sand tied to her feet.” // continue reading

  • The White Hospital

    The White Hospital

    by Jan Steckel. “They took two buses to get there. / Rosalia wouldn’t speak, just cradled the little suit / until Ruben gently took it away from her.” // 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