Rita Charon

Rita Charon, M.D., Ph.D., is Professor of Clinical Medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University and the leader of the emerging field of Narrative Medicine. (Click here for a full bio.) As Director and Founder of Columbia’s Program in Narrative Medicine, she guides both aspiring and practicing health care professionals in writing about their experiences from both their own points of view and the imagined perspectives of their patients. In this talk, “Listening for the Self-Telling Body,” she speaks about how these narratives, which she calls parallel charts, both heighten the attention of the caregiver, and create an affiliation between the patient and the caregiver. Dr. Charon is introduced by Lizz Sinclair.

This talk was part of the Literature & Medicine program’s national conference, Caring for the Caregiver: Perspectives on Literature and Medicine, held on November 9 & 10, 2007 in Manchester, NH.

Veneta Masson

A former public health nurse with many years’ experience, Veneta Masson, R.N., M.A., is also the author of three books. Though no longer in practice, Veneta continues to explore healing art. The title of her newest collection, Clinician’s Guide to the Soul, was also the title of her conference workshop. “As a family nurse practitioner, I relied on countless ‘clinician’s guides,’ concise, up-to-the-minute print or online references to specific topics like antibiotics, common skin conditions or pediatric lab values. But, a guide to the soul! What is the soul? And why, in this golden age of scientific exploration and achievement, do so many of us insist on its relevance to health and health care?”

This workshop was part of the Literature & Medicine program’s national conference, Caring for the Caregiver: Perspectives on Literature and Medicine, held on November 9 & 10, 2007, in Manchester, NH. Please leave your comments—or personal perspective, if you were there—on Veneta's workshop here.

Voici the Valley

The St. John Valley is found at the top of the state of Maine with the neighboring province of New Brunswick. Fondly called “The Valley,” this international region is home to around 55,000 people, mostly of French heritage. The Voici the Valley Cultureway was created by Sheila Jans, Don Cyr, and Daniel Picard of CultureWorth to celebrate the places and culture of the Valley. Visitors can enhance their experience (and residents can deepen their understanding) of the region with the Voici the Valley Audio Story and Guide, available for $15.

As you listen to the excerpts from Voici the Valley, you can add your comments here. Please also leave recollections or impressions of the St. John Valley, if you have lived there or visited.

Judy Schaefer

Judy Schaefer, R.N.C., M.A., is a nationally recognized author, editor, lecturer, teacher, and advocate for patients as well as nurses. Her workshop at the Literature & Medicine program’s national conference, Caring for the Caregiver (held on November 9 & 10, 2007 in Manchester, NH) was called “The Courage to Create: Finding Your Voice Through Writing.” If you have pen and paper handy while you listen, and pause the recording when Judy says to start writing, you can actually take part in the workshop yourself. Afterwards, you can leave your comments or share your writing here.

Rafael Campo

Rafael Campo, M.D., M.F.A., is a national award winning poet who is also a faculty member and practitioner of general internal medicine at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. His newest collection of poetry, The Enemy, was published in April 2007. He is a recipient of the Annual Achievement Award from the National Hispanic Academy of Arts and Sciences, among many other awards. Campo lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Campo was a special guest at the Literature & Medicine program’s national conference, Caring for the Caregiver, held on November 9 & 10, 2007 in Manchester, NH. On the podcast, you will hear both his keynote presentation (introduced by Veneta Masson) and his workshop, “Fact” vs. “Truth” in Narratives of Illness. Please leave your comments on both recordings here.

Christina Baker Kline

Christina Baker Kline is a novelist, nonfiction writer, and editor. Her novels include Sweet Water and Desire Lines. Her essays, articles, and reviews have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Yale Review, Southern Living, Ms., Parents, and Family Life. Currently writer-in-residence at Fordham University, Kline lives in Montclair, New Jersey, with her husband, three boys, and their dog, Lucy. She spends summers with extended family on Mount Desert Island. Her newest novel is The Way Life Should Be.

This reading was part of the Portland Public Library’s Brown Bag Lecture Series, sponsored by Martin’s Point Health Care.

Richard Ford

Born in Mississippi, educated in Michigan and California, a sometime resident of Montana and New Orleans, his Pulitzer Prize-winning Independence Day set in New Jersey, Richard Ford now lives in Maine. And he writes about it: “Charity,” in Contemporary Maine Fiction (Down East Books, 2005), for example, is about people from away who see the possibilities of Maine in very different ways. The considerable debate about whether Ford is a “Southern” or “ex-Southern” writer now has a new dimension, “Maine writer.”

This interview with Roorbach by Charlotte Albright was included on the Council’s 30th Anniversary CD, “Maine Writers Speak.”