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

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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
  • The Sounds of Jilotzingo

    The Sounds of Jilotzingo

    by Mehr-Afarin Kohan. “Now her praying to the clouds sounded stupid because I was old enough to know that nothing and no one would ever be descending. And old enough to know, something had broken in my mother’s backbone forever.” // continue reading

  • Ghon Focus

    Ghon Focus

    by Jonathan Strysko. “He had the urge to immediately order a CT scan, but the patient being his daughter, he didn’t have the luxury of calling the shots. His mind instead wandered to the more obvious epidemiologic questions: How? When?” // continue reading

  • A Big Empty

    A Big Empty

    by Rhonda Browning White. “We hadn’t talked since we left our West Virginia homeplace over two hours ago, both of us teary-eyed…” // continue reading

  • Walking, No Longer Your Patient

    Walking, No Longer Your Patient

    by Jill M. Allen. “A decade after we burned through the mysteries / and you taught me cartography’s other dark / arts, I dreamed of you coming for a garden tea…” // continue reading

  • Peeled Grapes 

    Peeled Grapes 

    by Sharon Olds. “When I call my mother on Mothers Day/ I thank her again for making me, and for /lamb chops, for smocked dresses, for Buster Brown…” // continue reading

  • Irrigation

    Irrigation

    by Martha Serpas. “we steal water when we make rain, the way / everything I have is from somewhere else, / from someone else, what I am…” // 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