The BLR seeks  high-caliber, unpublished work, broadly and creatively related to our  themes of health, healing, illness, the mind, and the body.

We encourage poems that are accessible to a wide audience. Characteristics we look for are vivid writing, strong narrative, and rendering the familiar new. We encourage you to peruse back issues in our archive to get a sense of our ethos. 

Please submit no more than three poems. Each poem should be on a separate page within a single document.

We consider simultaneous submissions, but request that you inform us  immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere.


If you are a current subscriber, you may submit under the No-Fee Submissions for Current BLR Subscribers category. If you'd like to subscribe, please use the Subscribe + Submit category.


We use Submittable to accept and review our submissions.