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

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— Everything BLR —

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— Read interviews with BLR authors, editors, readers, and more —

— A new set of great reads with each click —

  • fiction
  • nonfiction
  • poetry
  • Ghosts of Doubt

    Ghosts of Doubt

    by Gregg Cusick. “He stands before the class, the lectern his wheelhouse, the teen- or twenty- something-aged students his sea, the sky in the back windows his horizon. The worn paperback before him lays open to a page. If he… // continue reading

  • The Little Things

    The Little Things

    by Joan Malerba-Foran. “I’ve never been what you would call a good sleeper. I make it through the night about twice a week, and those nights are never consecutive.” // continue reading

  • Coulrophobia

    Coulrophobia

    by Jacob M. Appel. “My father fancied himself a shrewd landlord—he refused to rent to lawyers, the children of lawyers, even a college girl who “had law school written all over her”—but he probably bit off too much when he… // continue reading

  • The Color of Sound

    The Color of Sound

    by Judy Rowley. “Almost every night throughout my childhood I prayed that a miracle would occur, that I would be able to hear perfectly one day.” // continue reading

  • Every Day Anew

    Every Day Anew

    by Pia Jee-Hae Baur. “I dislike switching doctors, primarily because every time I have to recount my medical history, I have to decide how much I should lie.” // continue reading

  • Semantics

    Semantics

    by Rachel Hall. “We tell our kids to give it their best shot before their big exams—calculus, say, or French—or before the championship game on a crisp autumn night, the stands filled with fans in the school colors, the stadium… // continue reading

  • Her Marked Black Body

    Her Marked Black Body

    by Cynthia Parker-Ohene. “The macabre moon / Once lunged at me / It hisses red / Hangs voyeuristically / Wants me to stand in its balkanized light.” // continue reading

  • Saint Elizabeth

    Saint Elizabeth

    by Rachel Contreni Flynn. “My sister left for a few weeks, and the lid lifted / off the stock pot. The house filled with the possibility / of eating bread…” // continue reading

  • Rogue Wave

    Rogue Wave

    by Marie Kane. “She examines what the February sea threw and the beach caught: shreds of jellyfish, a half-rotted doll, garbled masses of kite string twined around one slack, yellow and orange kite.” // 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