BLR Writing Workshops: The Literary Rx
BLR’s writing workshop – The Literary Rx: Using Writing to Navigate Ethical Dilemmas in Healthcare – is here! This special series includes:
- The Book Doctors Are In! Panel conversation with acclaimed doctor-writers Perri Klass, Danielle Ofri, Damon Tweedy, and Esther Choo.
- January 30 at 7 p.m. ET
- Open to the public
- Creative writing workshop
- Two sessions: February 2 and 9 at 3 p.m. ET
- Open only to healthcare students and trainees
Supported by a grant from the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation.
We believe that the tools of creative writing and storytelling can help trainees grapple with the ethical dilemmas they face during their professional development. The very act of transferring ethical dilemmas from the inner ruminations out onto the page can be the first step in creating space to interrogate ethical issues.
Storytelling encourages self-reflection, which is essential for gaining insight on events as well as our own motivations and biases. Creative writing techniques, such as shifting points-of-view, developing characters, examining plot, and employing metaphor allows writers to mine for nuance and avoid simplistic solutions. Writing develops imagination, encouraging out-of-the-box thinking. Lastly, the communal aspect of writing workshops provides support, community, and shared learning.
About the writing workshop:
- Two sessions: Sunday, February 2nd and 9th, at 3:00 p.m. ET
- Open to nursing students, medical students, residents, and other healthcare trainees
- All levels of writing experience welcome
- Poetry, fiction, and nonfiction sections available
- Led by editors of the award-winning Bellevue Literary Review
- Small-group workshops offer community and support
- Space is limited; attendees must commit to both sessions in order to attend.
- Tuition is free for trainees thanks to generous funding by the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation.
Download a PDF flyer to post at your school or program.
Not a healthcare trainee – worry not! You are welcome to join the panel conversation with doctor-writers (see below). Future BLR writing workshops will be open to everyone; it’s only the 2025 workshop that is for trainees only.
The Literary Rx: The Book Doctors Are In
A panel conversation, The Literary Rx: The Book Doctors Are In, will take place Thursday January 30, 2025 at 7:00 p.m. EST. This will be a live online event, open to the public as well as the workshop attendees.
Join four best-selling medical writers for a rich discussion about ethical dilemmas they have faced and how they have used writing to dig deeper into considerations about these issues.
Panelists:
Danielle Ofri, MD, PhD, is the editor-in-chief of BLR, a primary care doctor at Bellevue Hospital, and a clinical professor of medicine at NYU. She is a contributor to The New Yorker and the New York Times. She is the author of 6 books, most recently, When We Do Harm.
Perri Klass, MD, is professor of journalism and pediatrics at NYU, where she directs the medical humanities minor, and national medical director of Reach Out and Read. She writes both fiction and nonfiction; her newest book is The Best Medicine, originally published as A Good Time to Be Born.
Damon Tweedy, MD, is a professor of psychiatry at Duke University School of Medicine and staff physician at the Durham Veteran Affairs Health System. His book, Black Man in a White Coat, was a New York Times Bestseller, selected by TIME magazine as one of the Top 10 Nonfiction books of 2015. His new book is Facing the Unseen: The Struggle to Center Mental Health in Medicine.
Esther Choo, MD, MPH, is an emergency physician and health services researcher at Oregon Health & Science University. She is a science communicator who discusses health inequities through both social media and traditional editorial writing. Her writing has been published in The Lancet, the British Medical Journal, Washington Post, MSNBC, and USA Today.