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
  • The Great Imitator

    The Great Imitator

    by Leslie Patterson. “I am a disease. My very existence poisons my father’s life.” // continue reading

  • Winston Speaks

    Winston Speaks

    by Jill Caputo. “Winston sold candy at the bus station on Wednesdays because that was the only day Georgia could give him a ride there. He kept the goods in the pack on the back of his chair: Snickers, Milky… // continue reading

  • Cousin Esther Goes to Chicago 

    Cousin Esther Goes to Chicago 

    by Cori Baill. “All that time I’ve been working here, mopping the floors, emptying the trash, washing down rooms, and watching the wet-behind-the-ears young pup doctors learn their business.” // continue reading

  • Lost Vessels

    Lost Vessels

    by Jehanne Dubrow. “Memory is not kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing damaged ceramics with a mixture of lacquer and powdered gold. There are ugly seams. There is no glittering dust poured into the fractures between sentences.” // continue reading

  • Officium

    Officium

    by Siobhan McKenna. “’How do you do it? How do you watch people die day after day?’ He asked the question as we passed each other on the threshold of his wife’s room. He was leaving after having said all… // continue reading

  • The Night of the Hurricane

    The Night of the Hurricane

    “Hurricanes are not a common occurrence in New York City, but on October 29, 2012, Hurricane Sandy made landfall with extraordinary force.” // continue reading

  • Above the Angels

    Above the Angels

    by Philip Levine. “A row of corrugated gray huts / hunkering down in the November rain. / Across the way the fire burns night and day / though unseen now in first light.” // continue reading

  • Distribution

    Distribution

    by Jenny Qi. “Scatter my ashes in the ocean, / my father instructed…” // continue reading

  • White Peaches

    White Peaches

    by Winshen Liu. “For you, that week, we bought peaches like eggs: / twelve in a box, more than we’d had in years: // pink-skinned, white-fleshed…” // 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