The After Glow of After Shock
::: feature article ::: read more
Last November’s conference, After Shock: Humanities Perspectives on Trauma, sought to provide insight and support to health care professionals who work with trauma patients of all kinds, particularly veterans. Those who attended report that the conference helped them both find new ways to better understand what their patients may have experienced and to take care of themselves in the process.

As one participant wrote:

After Shock was not only intellectually stimulating, but profoundly moving. This conference was a powerful look at the effect of trauma and how the humanities can help us understand how to respond to and help others who have suffered from it.

From the Inside Out
::: authors speak about their work ::: read more

An Interview with Elisabeth Tova Bailey

Elisabeth Tova Bailey’s spare, beautifully written book, The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating, has received praise from both the naturalist and medical communities, and rightly so. This “must read” book for Literature & Medicine groups illuminates the very separate world inhabited by those who are ill that is nearly impossible for those who are not ill to comprehend.

In our recent interview, Elisabeth spoke of the difficulty of explaining illness to others:

When a healthy person becomes injured or develops a chronic condition, their life separates into two distinct time periods, the life before and the life after. As time passes, the pre-illness life dims. At first I still had hope of recovery, because i could remember what health felt like, but after a decade had passed that memory faded. I do can no longer even imagine the “feeling” of health... Illness is a world without words, a world of sensation or, sometimes, the lack thereof. How can you explain your individual physical experience, which can impact all facets of life and which may change day to day, even moment to moment? It’s nearly impossible.

Nearly impossible, but, according to readers suffering from chronic illness who have written to Bailey, her book has done just this.

Gregory Fahy

Eye Witness
::: reflections from people involved in the Literature & Medicine program ::: read more

Thanks to support from the National Endowment of the Humanities, the Maine Humanities Council has worked with partner humanities councils to offer the Literature & Medicine program in 20 Veterans Administration Medical Centers across the country.

What is it like to facilitate a Literature & Medicine group in a VAMC? Greg Fahy, who facilitates for the long-running Lit & Med group at Togus VAMC in Maine, shares his thoughts. He also discusses some of the readings he and the group have explored together.

Because there is a diversity of perspectives around our table—we have representatives from all political, social, and economic perspectives—respect and trust is critical for our discussions. Participants need to feel free to express their vulnerability ...

Must Reads
::: facilitators review readings you don't want to miss! ::: read more

Literature & Medicine groups are gearing up for another year, so we asked three facilitators to share books that are worth considering for your group. The books are: Roddy Doyle’s novel, The Woman Who Walked Into Doors; Siobhan Fallon’s new short story collection, You Know When the Men Are Gone; and Jonathan Shay’s Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming.

Each book provides readers with the opportunity to see the world through the eyes of ordinary people living in extreme situations. Outsiders may not appreciate the damaging effects of these situations, nor the strength required to meet them.

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