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Celebrating National Nurses Week – BLR Writers
In honor of National Nurses Week, we’ve curated writing from nurses across BLR’s issues. Enjoy!
Celebrating National Nurses Week – Cover Notes
In honor of National Nurses Week, we’re highlighting the fascinating stories behind some of our historic cover photos. Enjoy!
BLR Spring 2025 Reading: Winning Words
Meet the writers and editors behind BLR’s Issue 48, our latest contest issue featuring the winners of the 2025 BLR Prizes. Featuring readings by Pia Jee-Hae Baur, Fiona Ennis, and Sandra Dolores Gómez Amador. With interviews by BLR editors Alanna…
Announcing the 2026 BLR Literary Prizes Judges
Meet our 2026 BLR Literary Prize judges! Submit your best poetry, fiction and nonfiction from March 1 to July 1, 2025.
BLR BookTalk with Venita Blackburn
Join us on March 27 to hear more about Venita’s novel, which has been called “the work of a gifted writer who understands love bonds, family, death and inevitability, but also has a sense of humor…
‘Reading the Body: Body Politic’ at the North Film Festival
Watch a screening of “Reading the Body: Body Politic” at the North Film Festival on February 28 at 2:00 PM.
Remembering Elizabeth Crowell
Liz was a talented writer who holds the distinction of being the only writer ever to win a BLR literary prize twice.
Thank You 2024!
As we get ready to welcome the new year, let’s take a look back at 2024, our most exciting year yet!
BLR Writing Workshops: The Literary Rx
BLR’s writing workshop – The Literary Rx: Using Writing to Navigate Ethical Dilemmas in Healthcare – is here! This special three-part series includes a panel conversation about writing in healthcare (open to the public) and…
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— See what’s new with us at BLR. —
BLR Spring 2025 Reading: Winning Words
Meet the writers and editors behind BLR’s Issue 48, our latest contest issue featuring the winners of the 2025 BLR Prizes. Featuring readings by Pia Jee-Hae Baur, Fiona Ennis, and Sandra Dolores Gómez Amador. With interviews by BLR editors Alanna Weissman, Lauralee Leonard, and Saleem Hue Penny Online, Wednesday, April 30 at 7 p.m. ET. Free and open to the public.
Announcing the 2026 BLR Literary Prizes Judges
Meet our 2026 BLR Literary Prize judges! Submit your best poetry, fiction and nonfiction from March 1 to July 1, 2025.
BLR BookTalk with Venita Blackburn
Join us on March 27 to hear more about Venita’s novel, which has been called “the work of a gifted writer who understands love bonds, family, death and inevitability, but also has a sense of humor about all of the above.”
2024 Pushcart Prize Nominees
BLR is delighted to announce our 2024 Pushcart Prize Nominees.
2025 BLR Prize Winners
Meet the Winners and Honorable Mentions of the 2025 BLR Literary Prizes.
BLR Spring 2024 Reading: Winning Words
Meet the writers and editors behind BLR’s Issue 46, our latest contest issue featuring the winners of the 2024 BLR Prizes. Featuring readings by Shastri Akella, Misty Kiwak Jacobs, and Amy Rothschild With interviews by BLR editors Doris W. Cheng, Danielle Ofri, and Saleem Hue Penny Plus additional poetry by William Klein, Siobhan McKenna, and Carolene Kurien Online, Thursday, May 23 at…
BLR Studio Visit: An Evening of Art and Stories
Join BLR and L’Space Gallery to celebrate the launch of our latest issue and its cover artist, Nicole Cohen. Featuring readings by Purvi Shah and Siobhan McKenna, and the premiere of Nicole Cohen’s Contemporary Art Books & New York Library video projection. In-person, Thursday, April 4th at 6:00 pm ET L’Space Gallery524 W 19th StNew York,…
2025 BLR Literary Prizes
Submit your best poetry, fiction and nonfiction from March 1 to July 1. $1000 prize.
2023 Pushcart Prize Nominees
BLR is delighted to announce our 2023 Pushcart Prize Nominees.
2024 BLR Prize Winners
Meet the Winners and Honorable Mentions of the 2024 BLR Literary Prizes.
— Come join us, online, or in person. —
UPCOMING EVENTS
WATCH OUR PAST EVENTS
BLR Writing Webinar: The Book Doctors Are In!
January 2025 | Online
Watch medical writers Danielle Ofri, Damon Tweedy, Esther Choo, and Perri Klass discuss writing, careers, and ethical dilemmas as part of our workshop series.
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BLR’s Annual ‘Narrative Arc: The Journey from Writer to Reader’
Thursday, December 5, 2024 at 7 pm | Online
Watch BLR‘s annual Narrative Arc: The Journey from Writer to Reader, celebrating the unique relationship between the writers who bring words to the page and the readers who receive them.
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BODY POLITIC: AN EVENING OF LIVE STORYTELLING
Saturday, November 16 at 7:30 pm | Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater at Symphony Space
An evening of live storytelling. Intimate and compelling live stories presented on stage, about the complex relationship between our bodies and society.
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BLR FALL READING – ISSUE 47
Thursday, October 17 at 7 pm | Online
Watch our fall online reading featuring the authors of our 47th issue on the theme of ‘Body Politic.’ Featuring authors Laura LeMoon, Sean Sam, and Mehr-Afarin Kohan, and interviews by BLR editors Alanna Weismann, Saleem Hue Penny, and Danielle Ofri.
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A BLR BENEFIT – NARRATIVE ARC: THE JOURNEY FROM WRITER TO READER
Join Bellevue Literary Review for Narrative Arc: The Journey from Writer to Reader, celebrating the unique relationship between the writers who bring words to the page and the readers who receive them.
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TAKING CARE: AN EVENING OF LIVE STORYTELLING
An evening of live storytelling. Intimate and compelling live stories presented on stage, about the universal experience of caregiving. Live music from pianist Kwami T. Coleman. A collaboration with The Nocturnists.
— Read interviews with BLR authors, editors, readers, and more. —
Interview: Lara Palmqvist
I saw how changing the stories we live by can in fact change our perceptions of the world. The very idea that no story is final—be it the story of one’s own self, or the story of a nation—is ultimately something in which I find great hope.
Interview: Sabah Parsa
Humor is the easiest for me to write in any piece, fiction or nonfiction.
Interview: Jack Coulehan
Clinical care provides the subject matter for many of my poems, and some of the themes I explore in them – for example, empathy, compassion, uncertainty, loss, anger, and guilt – have driven a process of self-discovery that I think has made me a better doctor.
Interview: Meredith Talusan
Fiction allows me to further portray realities from perspectives outside the majority, not just at the level of my lived experience but in terms of a broad range of possible trans, BIPOC, immigrant, and disabled experiences.
Interview: Manini Nayar
I rarely know how a story ends until I get there. A story has its own life, and I am immersed in it and on the margins at the same time, both participant and recorder.
20th Anniversary Editorial Roundtable
In honor of BLR’s 20th anniversary, we’ve invited editors past and present to offer reflections on the BLR’s founding and its evolution over two decades of publishing.
Interview: Julia Levine
I have loved the natural world since I was a small child and it is my inability to see it accurately that pains me.
Interview: Nina Adel
Almost all of my work takes place in the realm of the hybrid… I myself am just a regular person and artist who finds rules very difficult to adhere to.
Interview: Yalitza Ferreras
English has now become my primary language, although I experience it as a syllabic language, which I attribute to my brain being wired for Spanish.
— A new set of great reads with each click. Refresh for more. —
- fiction
- nonfiction
- poetry
Recoil
After my father’s disk sander had whirred to halt, he turned to me and gestured majestically. “Matthew, the work is always the best pay.” continue reading
Charmed
The handle of Hamid’s saber curved above his cummerbund. Arun did not like the way Hamid’s betel-stained teeth smiled out from between his oiled, drooping… continue reading
The Gun Goes Off and At First No One Knows Who’s Been Hit
Someone’s died. I know this because of vague posts on Facebook. It can’t be anyone I know very well, or I’d have texts or phone calls… continue reading
Dark Valley
I’m too young now to know how soon imaginary play will decay and mature into rumors and cliques and senior boys with beards who look… continue reading
Your Cane
Even your children, Mom and daee, tried lecturing you, but I knew you didn’t regret it. The sour taste you adored was still in your… continue reading
1 a.m. Refill
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… continue reading
EVOCATION (STREETS)
I am surrounded by streets/ half dark, half lit, by high rises/ sheathed in metal and glass, continue reading
Her Marked Black Body
The macabre moon / Once lunged at me / It hisses red / Hangs voyeuristically / Wants me to stand in its balkanized light. continue reading
Yellowthroat
Some of y’all pray to God/ I pray to the yellow warblers/ and their frail whistling continue reading
Submissions for the annual BLR Literary Prizes open on March 1st. Send us your best poetry, fiction, and nonfiction on health, illness, and healing. The deadline is July 1st.
This year's judges are Patricia Spears Jones, Nicole Chung, and Joan Silber! https://blreview.org/news/recent-news/2026-blr-literary-prizes-judges-announcement/
I love you like food. I keep myself from you,
take the heat, leave you bare.
I deny you your baking. I put you in a pan instead.
Read “One Day” by Kwame Sound Daniels in @BLReview for #BlackHistoryMonth:
https://blreview.org/poetry/one-day/