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

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  • fiction
  • nonfiction
  • poetry
  • 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

  • Finding Honey

    Finding Honey

    by Daniel Reiss. “To find honey, I must first find a bee. It’s not that hard to find a bee. I just wander the woods till I find a source of water. If I come to a creek or a… // continue reading

  • Bird Season

    Bird Season

    by Daniela Garvue. “After he brushed his teeth, he raised his wings in the bathroom to examine his smoky gray underfeathers.” // continue reading

  • Anticipatory Grief

    Anticipatory Grief

    by Misty Kiwak Jacobs. “After Father Marcel died, he came to me in a dream and said, “I liked you very much.” Not the Great Commandment that he kept, his job description. Gloriously less…Those words his imprimatur on my grief.” // continue reading

  • Dark Valley

    Dark Valley

    by Zoë Sprankle. “I’m too young now to know how soon imaginary play will decay and mature into rumors and cliques and senior boys with beards who look at me like I’m simultaneously a toddler and a toy.” // continue reading

  • Close to the Bones

    Close to the Bones

    by Amy Nolan. “It was a relentlessly sunny day in July, a week after my fifteenth birthday, when I was admitted to the hospital. I remember staring out the side window of the Chevette’s back seat, trying to follow the… // continue reading

  • Alprazolam, 0.5mg

    Alprazolam, 0.5mg

    by Teo Mungaray. “After the explosion, you choke, / Oxygen depleted, orbiting a planet / Red as rust and too far from earth / To call for help.” // continue reading

  • Papa (Bi-Polar) Bear

    Papa (Bi-Polar) Bear

    by Lila Dlaboha. “You didn’t come to bed until morning / You opened and closed doors all night / while I slept in the ambient soot…” // continue reading

  • Hinges

    Hinges

    by Melissa Stein. “You opened this door. Forced it back /  on its hinges, drove in the thin wedge, saying / ‘I may need to enter at a moment’s notice…'” // 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