Writing the Body: A Poetry Workshop

Welcome, and thank you for your interest in our poetry workshop. The workshop seeks to address the all-too-common disconnect between evidence-based and patient-centered medicine and convey how poetry can play a role in bridging this gap.  Writing about the body through a health and medicine lens uplifts embodied knowledge, celebrates bodily diversity, and recognizes the immense value of mapping our lived experiences through writing. Additionally, writing poetry about their own experiences with health and medicine can assist healthcare providers in better connecting and empathizing with their patients.

Course Overview:

The workshop will begin with a brief lecture on the importance of the medical humanities in the study and practice of medicine and will narrow to a discussion on the positive impacts of poetry on patients and healthcare providers. Following this brief lecture, and using a prompt as a springboard, participants will write a poem about their own embodied experience through a health and medicine lens. Prior to participants beginning the writing activity, the facilitator will share and discuss examples of poems with similar themes, and participants will be asked to share their thoughts and insights on the poems. Following the activity, participants will have the opportunity to share their poems with the group.

About Kristin LaFollette:

Kristin LaFollette is the author of Hematology (winner of the 2021 Harbor Editions Laureate Prize) and Body Parts (winner of the 2017 GFT Press Chapbook Prize). She received her Ph.D. from Bowling Green State University and is a professor at the University of Southern Indiana. Kristin is a member of Advisory Board for The Blood Project. Learn more about her work at kristinlafollette.com.

Course date and time:

• Thursday, September 21, 2023 from 11:00-12:30 CT

Register for the course