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

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— Everything BLR

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— A new set of great reads with each click —

  • fiction
  • nonfiction
  • poetry
  • Translation Memory

    Translation Memory

    by Midge Raymond. “For days he came home to find her in the same spot, staring at an empty street. When she turned to him, her eyes looked like thin wet glass, as if the slightest sound could shatter them.” // continue reading

  • Looking at Aquaman

    Looking at Aquaman

    by Kim Foster. “Something nobody warns you about, when you get very sick, is that you have to be polite. You have to be Emily f-ing Post every minute of the day…” // 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

  • Blood/Shed

    Blood/Shed

    by Alanna Weissman. “You know what they say—never trust anything that can bleed for a week without dying.” // continue reading

  • Double Exposure

    Double Exposure

    by Elisha Waldman. “Our hospital in Jerusalem feels haunted. Not, as one might think, by the ghosts of former patients, but rather by the living…” // continue reading

  • Snapshots of Bellevue

    Snapshots of Bellevue

    by Karen Lamberton. “The ‘General Slocum,’ was the biggest and fastest harbor day-liner. That day, about 2,000 passengers, embarked for an annual Sunday School excursion.” // continue reading

  • Ambulance

    Ambulance

    by Halvard Johnson. “This restaurant has a fine ambulance.” / What my friend, of course, must have / meant was that this restoration / had a fine ambience…” // continue reading

  • Surviving You

    Surviving You

    by Anthony Ageuro. “I don’t know how I did it, / loved you all those years in the quiet landscape / of a burning vineyard, of a toppling mountain…” // continue reading

  • Letter from a Code Talker, 1945

    Letter from a Code Talker, 1945

    by Sean Sam. “The commanders wish me to say / the language beaten from me. / Each time I speak another sun / drops from the abnormal sky.” // 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