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
  • Evacuation Instructions

    Evacuation Instructions

    by Elliott Hold. “With the fat stripped away, she is her essential self. They don’t tell you how beautiful people can be when they’re dying.” // continue reading

  • 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

  • Revolutions in Time

    Revolutions in Time

    by Elizabeth Lee. “…she is still young and doesn’t know postpartum depression, sleepless nights shredded by my wails, white suburban mothers’ pursed red lips as she picks me up from school in her laundromat clothes.” // continue reading

  • You Imagine Death

    You Imagine Death

    by Justine Payton. “Just five months ago, you hiked to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, whitewater rafted down the Nile, climbed volcanoes in Rwanda. Now, from the neck down, your body is unresponsive.” // continue reading

  • Call/Waiting

    Call/Waiting

    by Alexa Rose Steinberg. “Throughout the evening, I hear explanations of why people can’t talk when I call…” // continue reading

  • Our Psychedelic Minibreak 

    Our Psychedelic Minibreak 

    by Sunny Teich. “I am Googling the best places to get magic mushrooms. It’s important to stress here that I am the squarest person who has ever lived.” // continue reading

  • In the British Library Repository  

    In the British Library Repository  

    by Katie Chaple. “The other man holds the letters /  to his nose, inhaling deeply. / One letter after another he lifts and smells, / making two piles.” // continue reading

  • Looking Back

    Looking Back

    by Floyd Skloot. “summer lose its grip. Nothing more / than a waning of the scents that dwelt / all season near the hilltop…” // continue reading

  • Uremia

    Uremia

    by Margaret Kogan. “The smell is like nothing else. / Sickeningly sweet and kind of smoky, / like something burning and rotting at the same time, / it filled my father’s hospital room / and stuck to our clothes and… // 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