Friday Find: Dispatch from Iowa City, A Guest Post by Ronald H. Lands, M.D., M.F.A.

Ron Lands has to be one of the most impressive (and modest) people I met in my M.F.A. program. So when I learned that Ron – who earned an M.D. well before he tackled the M.F.A. – was attending a two-day event on “The Examined Life: Writing and the Art of Medicine” at the University of Iowa’s Carver College at April’s end, I was eager to request a guest post. Ever generous, Ron agreed. Here’s his dispatch from the conference (you can learn more about this event, and check out the online archive, here).

“The Examined Life: Writing and the Art of Medicine”
University of Iowa, Carver College of Medicine
April 28-April 30, 2010

by Ron Lands

Medicine and literature often share the same topics; life and death, suffering and loss and everything in between. As they have every year since 2006, medical students, physicians, nurses, patients, and caregivers convened in a city known for its great writers, to collaborate regarding the power of writing in making sense of these grand themes and to demonstrate that the practice of medicine is an interpretive work.

A cardiologist put a human face on illness by blending his profession with his hobbies, interpreting the patient’s heart pathology by ultrasound then photographing the person in their home and writing poetry about the experience. An English professor wrote a play based on her personal experience with cancer and an actor interpreted and performed this dramatic work. Academicians shared tools and techniques to empower other educators to exploit the power of writing to cause reflection and nurture empathy in their students. Researchers presented data hoping to identify a physiologic link between writing and stress reduction in caregivers of Alzheimer’s patients. A literary scholar turned physician offered a powerful examination of metaphor in the language of pain. A leukemia patient and her hematologist shared their five-year journey from diagnosis to a durable and sustained remission, using essay, memoir and colored pencil sketches drawn during the trauma of her bone marrow transplant.

Flannery O’Connor, one of many great writers associated with Iowa City through the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, said, “I write to find out what I know.” “The Examined Life: Writing and the Art of Medicine,” further demonstrates the clarifying effect that reading, writing and reflection can bring to the chaos of illness for those who suffer and those who witness the suffering.

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Ronald H. Lands teaches in the Department of Medicine at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville campus, where he practices and teaches Internal Medicine, Hematology and Palliative Care. His fiction has appeared in New Millennium Writings, descant, Washington Square, and many others. He has published essays from the intersection of writing and medicine in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Annals of Internal Medicine, Journal of the American Geriatric Society, and the Journal of Palliative Medicine. His work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Book Reviewing is NOT the Same as Sitting on the Couch Watching Bad TV

Earlier this week, Jason Boog reported on Arianna Huffington’s keynote speech at the “Tools of Change” conference. As I read the summary, I thought: Hey, Arianna! I’m with you! Especially when I read: “Huffington also explored the idea behind The Huffington Post books section, rejecting ‘this magical pub date’– the traditional time-period for scheduling book reviews and running book tours. ‘Forget about it–the idea that you have three weeks between pub date and oblivion. It doesn’t have to be like that,’ she said, earning a smattering of applause.” (A smattering of applause? I should think she would have received a standing ovation, at least from the writers and publishing professionals in the room.)

Anyway, as I say, I was with her–until I read this:

“Finally, she addressed the perennial criticism that many writers on the site don’t get paid. ‘Self expression is the new entertainment,’ she explained. ‘We never used to question why people sit on the couch for seven hours a day watching bad TV. Nobody ever asked, ‘Why are they doing that for free?’ We need to celebrate that moment rather than question it.'”

(Spoken like someone who might have both a huge divorce settlement AND a slew of advertisers and may not exactly depend on income generated by her own writing to pay her bills.)

Now, it may surprise some of you to learn that I’m just as capable of sitting on the couch for seven hours (when I have seven hours to spare) watching bad TV as the next person. (While I’m in confession mode, I may as well tell you that last weekend my sister and I went to see Kathy Griffin perform here New York. She–Kathy Griffin– was hilarious. There. By the way, if you don’t watch television, don’t bother going to see Kathy Griffin. Whenever she’s not imitating her mother, she’s talking about various reality shows and “characters. Or Anderson Cooper. Or Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.)

But I digress.

When I write, the “entertainment” factor differs significantly from what results when I stare at my TV. Any “entertainment” that comes from reviewing, for instance, is pure pleasure from the work, satisfaction from reading a book I (hopefully) want to tell others about (for that matter, reading it at least twice), thinking about that book, rechecking everything from the list price to the page count, and writing and crafting a text that will make sense and perhaps even resonate with readers. It’s work. It may be absorbing, self-expressive, and even entertaining work. But even if we choose not to be paid for it–as we might when writing for a particular cause/organization–it’s still work.

It’s not sitting on a couch watching bad TV.

Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference Readings and Lectures on iTunes U

If you’re one of those writers who yearns to attend the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference but who, for whatever reason, has never quite made it to Vermont, you may be especially glad to know that you can download readings and lectures presented at the Conference. Free! Without traveling! (Hat tip to Celeste Ng/the FWR blog for reminding me that this resource is available.)

Conference Scholarship for Ontario Writers (Deadline Approaching Fast!)

There’s no time to save this announcement for the Monday morning round-up, so I’m posting it today. The Ontario Writers’ Conference offers a “Kick-Start Writing Prize” for entrants (ages 18-26) who attend a postsecondary institution in the province of Ontario. “We believe in the importance of encouraging young writers to explore their creativity, strengthen their craft and immerse themselves in the writing community. To this end, we are offering one full scholarship and one partial fellowship to attend our 2010 writers’ conference, plus an opportunity for our winners to read at evening’s Festival of Authors.” You’ll need to submit a short personal essay with your application. There’s no entry fee. Deadline: November 1, 2009. (via placesforwriters.com)

The Thursday Web Browser

I know–Wednesday is the day for the Web Browser–but there is so much to share that I’m taking the liberty of making the regular “column” a two-day event this week:

While nixing cookie service at faculty meetings (or perhaps because of this cost-cutting measure), Harvard manages to purchase the archive of John Updike.
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Intriguing article about the day job/writing dilemma(s). (via Galleycat)
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The first-ever Compleat Biographer conference has been scheduled for May 2010 in Boston, and “biographers who are willing to put on a workshop, chair a panel discussion, or make a presentation” are in demand. (NB: According to The Biographer’s Craft, the conference date will be May 15, rather than the May 23 I just saw on the conference Web site.)
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And in case you’ve been offline for the last day and a half: this year’s Man Booker award has gone to Hilary Mantel for Wolf Hall.