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
  • ALMOST THEIDES

    ALMOST THEIDES

    by Manini Nayar. “Ammu has never known anyone who died. Not a grandparent or a rickety neighbor or anyone struck by what Ammu’s tightlipped mother, Nina, referred to (after six months of her own successful chemotherapy) as the C word.… // continue reading

  • The Veil Thins

    The Veil Thins

    by Fiona Ennis. “She was being tugged somewhere unearthly, towards a radiant light source, the same colour as those long fluorescent white lights that buzzed in the kitchen in the convent.” // continue reading

  • To The River

    To The River

    by Kelly Flanigan. “I walk into Scott’s kitchen, sweaty from basketball and needing something cold to drink, and there’s his mom in just her underwear…” // continue reading

  • 1 a.m. Refill

    1 a.m. Refill

    by Rebecca Grossman-Kahn. “It’s 1:00 a.m. and the emergency department is cold. The bright overhead lights illuminate the rows of empty desk chairs. I hear the tap-tap of rubber clogs shuffling in a far corner. There are only two patients… // continue reading

  • Mental Health Days

    Mental Health Days

    by Sakena Jwan Washington. “With practiced pain, I delivered an Oscar-worthy performance of smiles and congratulations, and then escaped to the bathroom and sobbed until my eyes were bloodshot.” // continue reading

  • Given

    Given

    by Nancy Devine. “This must be the first harvest from our acreage: our young vineyard singing, the plastic, ribbed grow tubes that make little greenhouses for each of the young grape plants catching wind and, like a throat and its… // continue reading

  • Power and Light

    Power and Light

    by Paula Sergi. “She’d toss a quilt made from our outgrown skirts / over the faded couch and lie there, / holding the ache, rocking it to sleep…” // continue reading

  • Socks

    Socks

    by Meg Kearney. “My father’s body has ceased to shock me. / His skin runs over his bones like a slow / river, rippling where belly meets hip.” // 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