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
  • Stray Gods

    Stray Gods

    by Shastri Akella. “When they play chase after, they aren’t Madhu and Boy. They’re the mythic boy gods, Krishna and Balarama, and Ajay, one of the many demons that the brothers chase and vanquish.” // continue reading

  • Halfway to the Afterlife

    Halfway to the Afterlife

    by Parker Desautell. “I had come into the hospital as I came into the world—twitching, foaming, groaning. I was almost brain-dead, they said, yet here I was, good as reborn.” // continue reading

  • 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

  • By My Own Hand

    By My Own Hand

    by Anita Darcel Taylor. “Mental anguish can be as unruly as any terminal illness. It can, unfortunately, orchestrate its own end.” // 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

  • Claiming Missing Inheritance

    Claiming Missing Inheritance

    by Jack Lancaster. “At the Whitney Museum, David Wojnarowicz’s portrait of his friend Peter Hujar claims its own wall. Ten feet back, I twist from parallel to perpendicular, unexpectedly lingering instead of walking by.” // continue reading

  • Serratia Marcescens  

    Serratia Marcescens  

    by Peter Sordillo. “That night, I dreamed of a city older than knowledge, / Dreamed of Serratia, climbed up from the soil, / Drawn over the fields like a long dress…” // continue reading

  • Fast-Thinning Throng

    Fast-Thinning Throng

    by Rachel Hadas. “I’m angrily packing to fly to my dying brother. / My husband stands and watches. As a tree / might look at someone, he looks down at me.” // continue reading

  • The Initiation

    The Initiation

    by Alicia Ostriker. “Boy, he said, you got to fill a graveyard / before you know this business / and you just did / row one, plot one.” // 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