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

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— A new set of great reads with each click —

  • fiction
  • nonfiction
  • poetry
  • Sisters of Mercy

    Sisters of Mercy

    by Joan Leegant. “The surgeon came into the O.R. chewing gum.  This was how we knew there’d be a problem. God have mercy, we mutter under our breaths…” // continue reading

  • Convergence

    Convergence

    by Kathryn Kulpa. “It’s going to happen today. He can feel it waiting to happen, because he’s wanted to know for so long. There are people who live to satisfy curiosity, and Derrick is one of them.” // continue reading

  • Rivers

    Rivers

    by Yalitza Ferreras. “Aunt #1’s plastic toilet lid shifts under Manolo’s weight as he balances his left ankle on his right knee, careful so his leg doesn’t slide off his sweatpants.” // continue reading

  • You Imagine Death

    You Imagine Death

    by Justine Payton. “Just five months ago, you hiked to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, whitewater rafted down the Nile, climbed volcanoes in Rwanda. Now, from the neck down, your body is unresponsive.” // continue reading

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    by Pamela Schmid. “In the summer of ’76, my little sister and I were shipped off to Camp Rim Rock, set beside the leech-infested Capacon River in the woods of West Virginia.” // continue reading

  • Canine Cardiology

    Canine Cardiology

    by Deborah Thompson. “Houdi pawed at the student’s thighs and, despite his heart condition, displayed one of his inopportune erections, which the vet student chose not to acknowledge.” // continue reading

  • Rogue Wave

    Rogue Wave

    by Marie Kane. “She examines what the February sea threw and the beach caught: shreds of jellyfish, a half-rotted doll, garbled masses of kite string twined around one slack, yellow and orange kite.” // continue reading

  • Homage to My Radiated Hip

    Homage to My Radiated Hip

    by Laura E. Garrard. “I am finally kind to my broken body / when she pops her hip, limps her leg. // I do not shout down my spine / but coo and coax like a loving mother…” // continue reading

  • Chaas Curry

    Chaas Curry

    by E. Hume Covey. “Two months into her illness, Pat / lay in pain, nearly immobile, / nourished by pills and liquids, / no appetite even for favorite foods…” // 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