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

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  • fiction
  • nonfiction
  • poetry
  • If Brains Was Gas

    If Brains Was Gas

    by Abraham Verghese. “I turned thirteen that week. I assumed that it came with some new liberties, but no one had specifically said so, and I was too uncertain to ask. Still, the night after my birthday, Elmo and me… // continue reading

  • An Infinite Hunger

    An Infinite Hunger

    by Joon Ae Haworth-Kaufka. “You eat more and more, until you feel sick. Your mom says people are souls, but not you. You’re an empty body, filling up and up and up to make the emptiness go away.” // continue reading

  • A Vehicular Situation

    A Vehicular Situation

    by Maija Stromberg. “’Well, here’s the good Dr. Kaspar stuck out in a field in the middle of nowhere,’ LeeAnn said.” // continue reading

  • How Air Moves

    How Air Moves

    by Leslie Roberts. “Underneath is a body cast, my new ectoskeleton, my nautilus, crawled into, where I live now.” // continue reading

  • Lone Wolf

    Lone Wolf

    by Ellen Gunnarsdottir. “‘That’s just how he is, our dear doctor,’ people would say, and by this would they meant that it was this very energy that had sent him to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin as a member of… // continue reading

  • Motherhood Requiem

    Motherhood Requiem

    by Nadia Ghent. “One afternoon, after my mother had fallen ill for the fourth or fifth time, I pulled out all my eyelashes, one by one. I was thirteen. She had gone to the hospital in the middle of the… // 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