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

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— Everything BLR —

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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
  • Admonition

    Admonition

    by Benjamin Kessler. “They’ve formed a barricade…Mountain goats stand shoulder to shoulder across the narrow two-lane. They appear unbothered by the idling of my car’s engine, content to simply stand and chew dry grass sprouted between asphalt cracks.” // continue reading

  • Beenie at Fourteen

    Beenie at Fourteen

    by Margaret Buckhanon. “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

  • Peer Review

    Peer Review

    by Kristen Swan Morrison. “There’s an infiltration in the group. I sense it. I see it a mile away.” // continue reading

  • The Raft

    The Raft

    by Toni Mirosevich. “You float down the river and soon learn this isn’t a joy ride, you’re not free yet, of duty, of care, of what binds you to the earth; there’s one more job to do. It’s your task… // continue reading

  • Dispatch From Bewilderness

    Dispatch From Bewilderness

    by Judith Hannah Weiss. “Probes puncture my scalp, surveying my mind. Temporal lobe, occipital lobe, you name it; there’s a probe for the lobe.” // continue reading

  • The Next Bullet

    The Next Bullet

    by Jeremy Griffin. “Despite my respect for my students, I was afraid of them. Afraid of the  way they watched me as I delivered a lecture, afraid of whispers, silences.” // continue reading

  • Images

    Images

    by Sofia M. Starnes. “If I forget you, / will you disappear? / The arc of Rilke’s question seemed to spawn/ out of a dustbin, / remnant of a / sheer belief that minds are gods.” // continue reading

  • Treatment

    Treatment

    by Laurie Kutchins. “Every underworld begins with a rabbit hole, a vent in the earth. / Noisy boys peering down, running home for lanterns and rope, a / Dizzy girl meanwhile tumbling into it.” // 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

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