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

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  • fiction
  • nonfiction
  • poetry
  • il Faut

    il Faut

    by Stephanie Hammer. “Now he stares at the bag of bulbs, the naked little bodies burgeoning, begging for life in the sweet dark ground. The ground that buries.” // continue reading

  • In Praise of Silence

    In Praise of Silence

    by Moshe Zvi Marvit. “Lillian tried to forget through silence, and though she could hide the facts from herself, she didn’t know how to keep the fears away.” // continue reading

  • The Great Imitator

    The Great Imitator

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

  • Calling Card

    Calling Card

    by Mary Luce. “It was a chilly November afternoon in a southern town so small it never made it to a map. I was in the bedroom typing when I heard the noise and then my mother’s scream. She somehow… // 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

  • The Practice of Cleaning

    The Practice of Cleaning

    by Sarah Nance. “My mother knows there are three / ways to be clean: to take a mess / that’s there and cover it…” // continue reading

  • Telephone

    Telephone

    by Judy Katz. “These days I think of you / on the yellow chaise / with your Parkinson’s / and hatred of telephones, / and make myself call.” // continue reading

  • The Sleepy Beauties of Sound

    The Sleepy Beauties of Sound

    by Jane Wayne. “For now it’s guesswork: a territory / full of unmapped regions, / where paths revert to weeds, and one only advances / by descent – so many steps / from the imagined to the lived.” // 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