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
  • 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 Brief Disclaimer To Whom It May Concern on the Chapter You Are About to Read

    A Brief Disclaimer To Whom It May Concern on the Chapter You Are About to Read

    by Simon Eskow. “Princess Ugmo was a sulky curled-up thing with the skin of a plucked and boiled chicken. She sat apart from the other patients in the dayroom, scanning the gossip pages, searching vainly for her boldfaced name.” // continue reading

  • Kale

    Kale

    by Marilyn Abildskov. “Is this why, when she finally gets out of her car and sets out to walk with the sun shining on her face–a blessing, sunlight like that–that every grievance, petty or perceived, begins to drain away? She… // continue reading

  • The Father Shift

    The Father Shift

    by Trish Travieso. “I was twenty-three years old the first time I saw my father wearing a dress.” // 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

  • Obligation

    Obligation

    by Leopold Szor. “No wonder that now, on the streets of Lvov, one could see smiles on the faces looking out the windows. Theirs was a joy of expectation. The hour of revenge was coming! The Jews of Lvov already… // 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

  • Shipped

    Shipped

    by John Kay. “At the end, my father took four, / long, calm breaths and died.” // continue reading

  • Socks

    Socks

    by Meg Kearney. “My father’s body has ceased to shock me. / His skin runs over his bones like a slow / river, rippling where belly meets hip.” // 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