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
  • Car Wash

    Car Wash

    by Arya Samuelson. “While I wait for him to pull the trigger, I drive to the grocery store. Pick up milk, chewing gum, sponges. Drop off the dry cleaning: the dress I splattered with a spaghetti stain at Shana and… // continue reading

  • Dian by Dian

    Dian by Dian

    by Richard Wu. “Everywhere you looked, you would see an unending flood of traffic, with sirens flashing and horns blaring and drivers yelling, and through the taxi’s open windows you would smell the stench of gasoline exhaust and cigarette fumes… // continue reading

  • Step-Down

    Step-Down

    by Nitin K. Ahuja. “I don’t mind the night shift. I’m still new here, granted, so it doesn’t really matter whether or not I mind it.” // continue reading

  • Anticipatory Grief

    Anticipatory Grief

    by Misty Kiwak Jacobs. “After Father Marcel died, he came to me in a dream and said, “I liked you very much.” Not the Great Commandment that he kept, his job description. Gloriously less…Those words his imprimatur on my grief.” // continue reading

  • Drawing Blood

    Drawing Blood

    by Laura Johnsrude. “I spent a lot of time thinking about blood during my training years—hoping I could get enough of it, wondering which vein would yield the best supply of it, wishing the patients had more of it, calling… // continue reading

  • Lone Wolf

    Lone Wolf

    by Ellen Gunnarsdottir. “‘That’s just how he is, our dear doctor,’ people would say, and by this would they meant that it was this very energy that had sent him to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin as a member of… // continue reading

  • Cleaver

    Cleaver

    by Sandra Dolores Gómez Amador. “I do not think about flesh anymore, but if I did, / I would tell you about its adoration / for cruelty.” // continue reading

  • A History of Melasma

    A History of Melasma

    by Jen Karetnick. “All that ink on your skin! / bartenders would marvel. / Cosmos at my elbow…” // 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