Special Announcements
::: special announcements ::: read more

There is a lot of news to share!

• Lit & Med has just completed its 10th year!
• The results from the 2006 participant evaluations make a strong case for the program’s value to health care professionals, their institutions and patients.
• Literature & Medicine is in 6 new states this year.
• Our new anthology will be published at the end of 2007.
• We held another successful Summer Institute.
• Lit & Med in the News.

Announcing our First National Conference—
Caring for the Caregiver:
Perspectives on Literature and Medicine
by Lizz Sinclair ::: feature article ::: read more
The first national conference for Literature & Medicine will bring a number of leaders in the literature and medicine movement together in Manchester, New Hampshire on November 9 & 10, 2007. Join colleagues from across the country to learn innovative ways that literature, discussion and writing can help you and your colleagues feel both rejuvenated and supported in your work.

Speakers will include Anne Fadiman, nationally acclaimed author of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down; Rita Charon, M.D., the leader of the Narrative Medicine movement; and award winning poet and essayist Rafael Campo, M.D.

CMEs and CEUs will be available.

From the Inside Out
::: authors speak about their work ::: read more
Mention Rita Charon’s name to people involved in medical humanities and you will probably hear, as I did, words like “visionary,” “a mover and a shaker,” even “revolutionary”—and for good reason. Dr. Charon is a well-respected leader in the field of literature and medicine. An internist with a PhD in literature, the co-editor of the journal, Literature & Medicine, is indeed a visionary. Her recent book, Narrative Medicine: Honoring the Stories of Illness, is a thoughtful primer to the new field of narrative medicine, a way for health care professionals to provide care which offers, as she puts it,

“the hope that our health care system, now broken in many ways, can become more effective than it has been in treating disease by recognizing and respecting those afflicted with it and in nourishing those who care for the sick.”

We are very fortunate to have Rita Charon as one of the speakers at our forthcoming national conference. I recently had the opportunity to talk with her about her work.

Eye Witness
::: reflections from seminar participants ::: read more
Retired psychiatrist Paul Genova reflects on what his patients have taught him about the potential value of suffering, cautioning that “if we simply abort or arrest suffering whenever possible before listening for the meanings our patients may find in it, we may unwittingly contribute to a society flattened of emotional depth.”

From the Hospital
::: a forum for Literature & Medicine liaisons ::: read more
The Maryland Humanities Council has been a partner in the Literature & Medicine program for the past two years. Recently, Program Officer Jean Wortman asked liaison Sister Jeremy Daigler, Special Assistant for Donor Relations and a former Emergency Room Chaplain, and facilitator Karen Arnold to reflect on their experience with the program at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland’s first Literature & Medicine site.

“…in the stratified community of a health care institution, I am very grateful for the ‘equalizing’ effect of all the participants in the program feeling themselves to be peers in a common endeavor.” —Sister Jeremy Daigler

Must Reads
::: facilitators review readings you don’t want to miss! ::: read more
Solar Storms is the story of troubled seventeen-year-old Angela Jensen’s quest to learn about her past and heal her broken spirit. Facilitator Karen Arnold thinks that Linda Hogan’s lyrical story of Angela’s return to the home of her Native American family can add an important perspective to discussions of how we heal, and where healing can be found.

National Connections
::: Literature & Medicine news from humanities councils across the country ::: read more