Sometimes short-form writing can’t encapsulate the richness of our experiences. The following books and magazines provide insight into how loss and recovery impact perspectives within the medical field and beyond.
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Books
When Breath Becomes Air
“At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade's worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. This book chronicles Kalanithi's transformation from a naïve medical student "possessed," as he wrote, "by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life" into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality.
What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.”
Being Mortal
“Through eye-opening research and gripping stories of his own patients and family, Atul Gawande reveals the suffering this dynamic has produced. Nursing homes, devoted above all to safety, battle with residents over the food they are allowed to eat and the choices they are allowed to make. Doctors, uncomfortable discussing patients’ anxieties about death, fall back on false hopes and treatments that are actually shortening lives instead of improving them. And families go along with all of it.
Gawande, a practicing surgeon, has revealed the struggles of his profession. Now he examines its limitations and failures—in his own practices as well as others’—as life draws to a close. And he discovers how we can do better. He follows a hospice nurse on her rounds, a geriatrician in his clinic, and reformers turning nursing homes upside down. He finds people who show us how to have the hard conversations and how to ensure we never sacrifice what people really care about.”
The Long Goodbye: A Memoir
“What does it mean to mourn today, in a culture that has largely set aside rituals that acknowledge grief? After her mother died of cancer at the age of fifty-five, Meghan O'Rourke found that nothing had prepared her for the intensity of her sorrow. In the first anguished days, she began to create a record of her interior life as a mourner, trying to capture the paradox of grief-its monumental agony and microscopic intimacies-an endeavor that ultimately bloomed into a profound look at how caring for her mother during her illness changed and strengthened their bond.
With lyricism and unswerving candor, The Long Goodbye conveys the fleeting moments of joy that make up a life, and the way memory can lead us out of the jagged darkness of loss. Effortlessly blending research and reflection, the personal and the universal, it is not only an exceptional memoir, but a necessary one.”
In Shock
“During her critical care fellowship, Dr. Rana Awdish experienced a traumatic, life-threatening miscarriage and subsequently underwent an extensive emotional and physical recovery.
In this book, Dr. Awdish recalls her experience as both a patient and provider and shares her thoughts on the many ways that medical professionals often fall short in their attempts to interact with their dying or grieving patients. While other physicians have written extensively on the topic of end-of-life care in the United States, Dr. Awdish adds the perspective of someone who has confronted her own mortality. She shares how she came to terms with her illness and imminent death in a way that is both relatable and honest, speaking frankly about death in a way that can only develop from personal experience.”
A Grief Observed
“After C.S. Lewis’ wife died from cancer, he kept a journal to get through the “mad midnight moments” that followed, and his journal entries were later compiled and published in this book. Lewis holds nothing back, and this short read (just 70 pages!) feels surprisingly familiar. Unlike some other books about grief that seek to impart pearls of wisdom about the bereavement process, it’s clear that Lewis isn’t trying to sell you anything. In the wake of his wife’s death, he writes candidly about his grief: discussing his guilt in forgetting details about her appearance, his annoyance regarding new changes in his other relationships, and his anger and confusion that forced him to reexamine his faith in God. His honesty is refreshing and can remind those who have lost loved ones that they are not alone in struggling through the complexities of their grief.”
Magazines
“First produced in 2007, Abaton serves as a creative outlet for DMU students, faculty, alumni and other healthcare professionals. Abaton explores aspects of health care that often elude academic disciplines. It is these often unspoken sentiments of the provider and patient that form a bridge to an evidence-based profession. By allowing these stories to be heard, we give voice to the most fundamental aspect of medicine – humanism.”
“Ars Medica is a biannual literary journal, started in 2004, that explores the interface between the arts and healing, and examines what makes medicine an art. Ars Medica remains the only medical literary journal in Canada, and one of a handful of such journals in the world, in the rapidly developing international field of the humanities in healthcare. Ars Medica allows a place for dialogue, meaning-making, and the representation of experiences of the body, health, wellness, and encounters with the medical system.”
“Atrium is published by the Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities. Each issue focuses on a different theme related to these disciplines, but each contributor explores the theme in different, thought-provoking ways. Individual subscriptions for the publication are free for clinicians, scholars, and students.”
“The Bellevue Literary Review, founded in 2000, was created as a forum for creatively exploring a broad array of issues in medicine and society, using fiction, nonfiction, and poetry to better understand the nuanced tensions that define our lives both in illness and in health. We are devoted to publishing writing that brings together the perspectives of patients, caregivers, family members, students, healthcare professionals, and the general public, allowing for a deeper understanding of others’ experiences.”
“This journal is created by OU College of Medicine students. Each year, 30-40 1st-4th year medical students volunteer to be a part of B&T. It is the goal and purpose of Blood and Thunder to enhance the education of healthcare professionals through the exploration of art for artistic expression.”
“The Examined Life Journal began in the Fall of 2010 when a group of physicians who were also writers approached the director of the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine Writing and Humanities Program with the idea for starting a journal that explored the confluence of art and medicine.”
“The Healing Muse is the annual journal of literary and visual art published by SUNY Upstate Medical University's Center for Bioethics & Humanities. We welcome fiction, poetry, narratives, essays, memoirs and visual art, particularly but not exclusively focusing on themes of medicine, illness, disability and healing.”
“Hospital Drive is the online literary and humanities journal of the University of Virginia School of Medicine. The journal publishes original literature and art on themes of health, illness, and healing.”
“Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine is a literary journal dedicated to promoting the theory and practice of narrative medicine, an interdisciplinary field that enhances healthcare through the effective communication and understanding between caregivers and patients. Our name Intima has a specific resonance in the field: narrative medicine defines itself as the intimate interface between two people, one as healer, one as being healed, who both yield and gain from the experience of the clinical encounter.”
“in-Training is the online peer-reviewed publication for medical students, founded in April 2012 by Aleena Paul and Ajay Major, medical students at Albany Medical College. All content on in-Training is contributed by medical students worldwide. As a peer-reviewed publication, the in-Training Editorial Board consists entirely of volunteer medical students and is editorially independent, with all content reviewed solely by the medical student editors and the editors-in-chief prior to publication.”
“The Journal of Narrative Visions (JNV) was created in 2014 by Kalla Gervasio, MD and Albert Wu, MD, PhD at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The ever-growing field of narrative medicine has covered medicine as a whole, as well as specific fields such as oncology in the past. JNV was developed with the intention of bringing more focus to the fields of ophthalmology and optometry through creative works such as essays, fiction, poetry, and artwork.”
“The New Physician is a bi-monthly magazine committed to exploring the social, political and ethical issues of healthcare and medical education. It is a journalistic publication that covers aspects of the personal, clinical and career development of physicians in an engaging but concise way. The magazine’s goal is to provide medical students with the tools they need for success in their classrooms, labs and on the wards.”
“Ourselves Black is a biannual, mental health resource magazine for the Black Community, beautifully written and designed to focus on our exploration of our mental selves through a select number of engaging resources, interviews, stories and photography. Birthed from my perspective as an HBCU educated and Ivy League trained psychiatrist, Ourselves Black is a place where we own the narrative and are unapologetic about our goal: to share imagery and tell stories infused with knowledge that promotes Black mental health.”
“The Perch focuses on mental health in all its dimensions, from personal to community-based to its engagement with broad social concerns. For us, mental health has many aspects—physical, emotional, social, civic, political, cultural, spiritual, and more. We are interested in individual health in its settings: how the personal and the communal interact. With The Perch we hope to expand the mental health narrative to include new and unexpected voices, ideas, and creative expressions.”
“Launched in 2008, Pulse was created by members of the Department of Family and Social Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine in collaboration with colleagues and friends around the country. At a time when the pioneering work of Rita Charon has established the value of narrative medicine--an approach that places a premium on personal perspectives within a healthcare encounter--Pulse makes narrative medicine available to all and accessible to anyone.”
“thirdspace is an online journal dedicated to recording the unique experience of medical education. We give voice to an international community of writers and artists creatively exploring the challenges, rewards, and peculiarities of premedical and medical education, residency, and fellowship training. This journal seeks to transcend the strictures of personal and professional identities by providing a space for the unrepressed consideration of physicians in training as self-aware, complex human beings.”