Articles & Media
Body Politic: An Evening of Live Storytelling
Danielle Ofri and Ashley McMullen host a night of intimate and compelling live stories about the complex relationship between our bodies and society. Six storytellers take to the stage to perform their inspiring personal stories for a live audience, with live ASL interpretation. Presented by Bellevue Literary Review. More
Crafting a Story of Illness
BLR Editor Danielle Ofri hosts Sandeep Jauhar, Rana Awdish and Theresa Brown for a fascinating conversation about getting illness onto the page. More
Defiant Acts of Joy
When a friend hit me up with a “great opportunity”, my answer was an immediate no. Whatever crumbs of free time in my possession were now taken up with responding to the Trump administration’s attacks on nearly every aspect of society that I hold dear. There were elected officials to harangue, rallies to attend, letters to write, elections to canvass for. There were phone-banks to staff, petitions to circulate, campaigns to support, articles to write. “But it’s Beethoven’s Ninth,” my friend beseeched, helpfully attaching 25 dense pages of music to the email. Rehearsal was in three days. More
Rolling Back Vaccinations
I suspect Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. would be happy to ban many vaccines outright, but that likely wouldn’t go over well with the overwhelming majority of Americans who support vaccinations for preventable diseases. So he’s tackling the vaccine infrastructure, instead, making it more difficult to get vaccinated. More
Doctors Have Lost Their Mount Olympus of Medicine
In the first Trump administration, despite relentless attacks from the president, the nation’s public health institutions remained largely intact, if wearied. But the plunder of the second Trump administration has disemboweled them and installed fox-guarding-the-henhouse leadership. Medical professionals can no longer fully trust federal health guidance, and our patients are the ones who will suffer the most. More
Danielle Ofri interviews author Anne Fadiman
Danielle Ofri interviews author Anne Fadiman. They discuss her award-winning book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, and how the culture of medicine struggles to communicate with other cultures. They also delve into Ex Libris, Fadiman’s brilliant collection of essays about the trials of being a book lover and the tribulations of growing up in a “grammar cartel.” More
“When We Do Harm” in Korean
안녕하세용 Beacon Press is excited to announce that “When We Do Harm” is now available in Korean! You can order it from our favorite bookstore in Seoul. More
Danielle Ofri interviews author Pria Anand
Danielle Ofri interviews neurologist (and BLR author) Pria Anand to celebrate the publication of her first book, The Mind Electric. Danielle and Pria discuss writing, medicine, and the intricacies of the mind. More
Why Do Doctors Write?
The first patient I ever wrote about wasn’t actually my patient; as a first-year medical student, that possessive grammatical construct—“my patient”—hadn’t yet entered my consciousness, much less my lexicon. In any case, by the time I met him, he was already dead. More
Winning Words 2025
A celebration of BLR’s 48th issue and the winners of the 2025 BLR literary prizes. Hosted by Danielle Ofri More
Oliver Sacks: His Own Life
Danielle Ofri hosts a conversation with editor Kate Edgar and writer Bill Hayes about the documentary of Oliver Sacks’s remarkable life More
Reading the Body—Panel Discussion and Film
Danielle Ofri hosts a panel discussion on dance, poetry, and the examination of “body politic,” along with a screening of the award-winning film, “Reading the Body.” More
Studio Visit: Mary Lacy
Danielle visits the studio of muralist and artist Mary Lacy in Northampton, Massachusetts. Mary does both large-scale public murals and intimate multimedia work that explores human anatomy. Her gorgeous ceramic mosaic portraits are featured on the cover of BLR Issue 47, featuring poetry, fiction, and nonfiction on the theme of Body Politic. More
The Book Doctors Are In!
Danielle Ofri hosts fellow medical writers Perri Klass, Esther Choo, and Damon Tweedy to talk publishing advice, creative writing, patient consent, the medical/writing life, and how to wrestle ethical dilemmas onto the page. More
The Assault on Science
The memo came out on a Wednesday, and agencies had until 5 p.m. on Friday to scrub their websites of anything that might “promote or inculcate gender ideology.” As a result, hundreds of government websites were shorn of articles, pages, and data sets. The Trump administration is signaling its contempt for evidence-based science and its disregard for human health and life. More
