Conference promotes medical, literary dialogues
“The Examined Life: Writing and the Art of Medicine,” a major conference hosted by the UI Carver College of Medicine, has established its place as an annual forum in the national dialogue between the medical and literary communities. The second “Examined Life” conference, organized by the College’s Writing Program, took place April 23-25 on the UI campus and drew more than 140 participants from across the United States and Canada; indeed, one individual traveled from as far as Australia and another came from the United Kingdom to participate in the gathering.
Physicians and medical educators, writers and teachers of writing, editors, publishers and medical students came together to share their experiences and ideas about the value of writing in medical education and practice and about the contributions physicians can make to the world of letters. Such diverse perspectives are a crucial aspect of the conference’s success, said Margaret LeMay-Lewis, the Writing Program’s coordinator.
Similar conferences around the country often focus on a single theme such as reflective writing in medical education or helping physician-writers develop their craft, LeMay-Lewis noted. “What’s unique about this conference is that it’s an opportunity for dialogue among people with different aims but who share an interest in writing and medicine,” she said.
The conference also is a tangible link between the College and some of the UI’s esteemed writing institutions, LeMay-Lewis said. “There is no doubt that our work here at the medical school depends on strong collaborations with the literary community throughout campus,” she said. “One of the great results is to create opportunities for medical students that we wouldn’t have otherwise.”
Bowman Creative Writing Contest announces winners
Three UI medical students have garnered prizes and one other an honorable mention in the 2008 Carol A. Bowman Creative Writing Contest. First place, worth $200, went to M4 Ben Lewis for his essay, “A Numbers Game.” Two students took second-place prizes worth $125: M1 Micheil Cannistra for her essay, “The Position of the Uterus,” and Lewis for his poem, “Leonard Susskind.” M1 Shandhini Raidoo took third prize for her poem, “Fall.” M2 Brent Nichols earned honorable mention for his poem, “It Was My Rose to Pick.”
The winning entries will be published in the UI Carver College of Medicine’s online arts magazine ROY.
Judges for this year’s contest were Janeta Tansey, M.D., a doctoral candidate in religious studies at the UI, and Hugh Ferrer, associate director of the UI International Writing Program and fiction editor of The Iowa Review. The contest was established more than a decade ago by Richard Caplan, M.D., professor emeritus of dermatology and former director of the Program in Biomedical Ethics and Medical Humanities at the UI. It is named for Carol Bowman, who earned a Ph.D. in medical humanities at the UI in 1992 and died of cancer a year later.
Conference sessions highlighted the use of reflective writing in medical education to foster students’ self-awareness and professional development; “patient voice” projects that encourage patients to express themselves in writing as a way to cope with illness; physicians who write poetry, fiction and essays to satisfy their creative impulses; and advice from established authors, editors and publishers to physicians and others on how to get their work published. Presenters included individuals from the UI engaged in these realms of activity.
For example, M4 Hilary Mosher Buri led a discussion of a semester-long elective for UI medical students that incorporates critical readings of published works and a writing workshop for class members. Buri, who earned an MFA in poetry at Warren Wilson College and taught writing before entering medical school at the UI, explained her view that the workshop provided a useful outlet for medical students to express anger, confusion, sadness, humor and insights that remain, perhaps necessarily, outside the medical curriculum. She invited several classmates to read from pieces they had written for the course.
The conference also included the premier performance of “Grand Rounds,” a theater piece developed from the experiences of cancer patients with the health care system. Loreen Herwaldt, M.D., professor of internal medicine and associate professor of epidemiology at the UI; Marcy Rosenbaum, Ph.D., associate professor of family medicine and faculty development consultant with the College’s Office of Consultation and Research in Medical Education; and Austin Bunn, a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the Iowa Playwrights’ Workshop, used transcripts from more than 40 in-depth interviews with cancer patients and survivors to craft a work in which the characters dramatize the patients’ stories.
A session led by Bruce Brown, M.D., professor emeritus of radiology at the UI, and Matthew Gilchrist, assistant director of the UI Writing Center, focused on writing groups as a tool for physicians to gain the sustained critical feedback they need to develop as writers. Brown, who is writing a novel, noted that many doctors in academic settings are used to having their scientific papers reviewed but may not know where to turn for responses to their creative writing. Gilchrist described the writing groups facilitated through the Writing Center and said their diversity—groups typically include writers of all ages whose needs vary significantly—is both a challenge and a strength for members seeking to gauge readers’ responses to their work.
The conference closed with a panel on writing at the UI that included Lan Samantha Chang, director of the Iowa Writers Workshop; David Hamilton, Ph.D., professor of English at the UI and editor of The Iowa Review; and Joseph Parsons and Allison Thomas of the University of Iowa Press. LeMay-Lewis moderated the discussion.
Featured presentations, free and open to the public, drew many interested individuals to the conference. They included an opening performance by lyricist, composer and UI graduate Rinde Eckert, a reading by former Iowa poet laureate and Iowa Writers Workshop faculty member Marvin Bell, a talk by physician/author Daniel Mason, and a reading by Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate and breast cancer survivor S.L. Wisenberg.
“The Examined Life” was made possible by financial support from the UI Carver College of Medicine; the University of Iowa Press; Iowa State Bank & Trust Company; The Iowa Review; University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics; and Prairie Lights. Also, the UI Program in Biomedical Ethics and Medical Humanities, Richard M. Caplan, M.D., and Constantine Antoniades.