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
  • Sloth, That Wicked Siren

    Sloth, That Wicked Siren

    by Christopher Notarnicola. “Why he stopped showering, no one could say for sure, though everyone had their guesses.” // continue reading

  • Reflexes

    Reflexes

    by Adriana Golden. “…what started as an alibi could be a salvation. Yesterday, I flushed the rest of the pills down the toilet, all at once. They flocked out of sight like a swarm of tiny pink beetles.” // continue reading

  • Still Life 

    Still Life 

    by Marpessa Dawn Outlaw. “From the moment my friend George stepped from his loft to his death at the bottom of the building’s elevator shaft, there’s been one thing I can say I’ve known for sure—that love is dangerously overrated.” // 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

  • Lost Vessels

    Lost Vessels

    by Jehanne Dubrow. “Memory is not kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing damaged ceramics with a mixture of lacquer and powdered gold. There are ugly seams. There is no glittering dust poured into the fractures between sentences.” // continue reading

  • If You Scared, Say You Scared

    If You Scared, Say You Scared

    by Sheree L. Greer. “Every time I think I learn something about myself, about my body and how to best treat it or love it, my body tells me that control is a lie.” // continue reading

  • Out Back, Behind the Hospital

    Out Back, Behind the Hospital

    Steve Cushman. “We shared cigarettes and jokes / talked about anything except / what we’d seen, the baby we’d X-rayed, / his bruises…” // continue reading

  • Migrations

    Migrations

    by Ines P. Rivera Prosdocimi. “San Nicolas fluctuated between mentor, master. / The more I travelled the stairs, he levitated. The more / I slid my finger along his goldstone frame, he’d say, /‘Ciónnn.” // continue reading

  • Appendectomy

    Appendectomy

    by Alexandra Ozols. “…so I worry and know that everything / is not fine which sends my heart galloping / like a horse turned wild by gunshots…” // 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