THE CENTER FOR LITERATURE AND MEDICINE · 2017. 10. 18. · Buckley and Carol Donley team-taught at...

THE CENTER FOR

LITERATUREAND MEDICINE

1990-2017

32 | Hiram College Center for Literature and Medicine

ORIGINS

Both Carol Donley and Martin Kohn were using Williams’ works before they met each other: Carol in her dissertation and teaching at Hiram and Marty creating the William Carlos Williams Poetry Contest at Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine (now NEOMED). In 1984 a mutual friend introduced them and that was the beginning of a 33-year collaboration and friendship, over 15 years of which were spent as co-directors of the Center. They knew at once they were kindred souls who both tended to blue sky ideas and trying them out. In 1985 they took their plans to Hiram’s Dean, Ed Smerek, who liked their ideas and provided critically important institutional support. Glenn Saltzman likewise provided support for Marty’s work at NEOUCOM. Carol and Marty began team-teaching, sharing speakers and programs between their two institutions which led to planning for their first book, and writing a proposal for an NEH Institute for Literature and Medicine in the late 1980’s. Awarded in 1988-89, the first NEH Institute for Literature and Medicine met five times over the year in order to accommodate health care professionals’ schedules. This unorthodox format turned out to have many benefits, including creating a network of literary scholars, physicians, nurses, hospital chaplains, writers, and educators who were all interested in interdisciplinary literature and medicine connections. The first Institute was such a success, they immediately applied to NEH for a second Institute. Meanwhile, the Center for Literature and Medicine was officially

Continued on the next page

Origins |

We have William Carlos Williams to thank for providing the inspiration for the Center for Literature and Medicine.

Carol Donley and Martin Kohn, founders and first co-directors of the Center for Literature and Medicine

By Carol Donley and Martin Kohn

The cover image features the sweet woodruff plant. A stencil pattern of sweet woodruff graces the walls of Mahan House, the home of our Center. Sweet woodruff was considered a valuable medicine in the Middle Ages for heart, liver, and stomach upsets and for treating wounds. Its fragrance, like new-mown hay, makes it still valuable for potpourris, perfumes, and balms.


created by the Boards of both institutions in 1990. Hiram granted an old house to the Center, with the expectation that sufficient funds would be raised to renovate it. That happened quickly, with a $200,000 challenge grant from Dr. Alfred Mahan. The second NEH Institute for Literature and Medicine (1991-92) had Mahan House for a base. The literature and medicine community was growing, thanks in part to the nurturing environment of the two Institutes and the spectacular participants and faculty who joined us. (But we made sure that that “division” was erased by the first night!). As promised in our NEH grant proposals, the Center continued self-sustained programming by providing annual summer seminars that brought together leaders in the field with those eager to enter it. The first programs in Narrative Bioethics were offered at the Center’s summer seminars in the early 1990’s, followed by many years of topically-based sessions. These summer seminars also encouraged attendees to bring and share their own creative work, with many talented writers and artists finding the congenial community a good testing ground. Libations and a somewhat well-tuned piano found even the most reluctant attendee sharing something creative (perhaps unprintable here) on the final night! The first book in our Kent State University Press series was Literature and Aging, published in 1992 and co-edited by Martin Kohn, Delese Wear, and Carol Donley. It drew on the Literature and Aging course which Marty and Carol taught at Hiram. Significant support for copyright royalties came from NEOUCOM. In 1996, KSU Press published The Tyranny of the Normal, based on a course Sheryl Buckley and Carol Donley team-taught at Hiram. At that point, the Press then asked Marty and Carol to be co-editors of a “Literature and Medicine” series. By the time they turned the editorship over to Michael Blackie, they had 19 books in the series. Several new courses were created in the first few years of the Center: “Narrative Bioethics,” “Uses and Abuses of Power in Health Care,” “Conversations in Narrative Ethics: On Care,” “What’s Normal?” and others all drew many students. The courses were taught in both Hiram’s traditional and weekend colleges. A number of the early courses were also offered to NEOUCOM students. A minor in Health Care Humanities on the Hiram campus was created in 1993. Soon, Hiram faculty Sandra Madar in biology and Colleen Fried in chemistry realized that these courses would well-serve Hiram’s students interested in

health care. Under their leadership, the Hiram faculty approved a Biomedical Humanities major in 1998. Led mostly by Martin Kohn, the Center was also involved in many creative arts ventures. The first, emerging out of the William Carlos Williams Poetry Contest at NEOUCOM, were campus-based and public poetry readings featuring each year’s winning poets as well as guest writers and poets such as Andrei Codrescu, John Stone, Richard Berlin and Elissa Ely. Marty worked with local playwrights to recast Kurt Vonnegut’s play Fortitude and E.M. Forster’s story “The Machine Stops” into radio dramas aired by Cleveland’s public radio station, WCPN ideastream. Marty also hired Verb Ballets to create dances based on Richard Selzer’s story “Luis” and Jeanne Bryner’s book of poetry Tenderly Lift Me, both of which were performed many times for Northeast Ohio audiences. In 2001, Dr. Thomas Andrews, a Hiram alum and trustee, endowed a professorship in biomedical humanities, with Carol Donley as its first holder, which further helped to recognize and support the role of the Center within Hiram’s campus. At the same time, the Center sent the NEH a proposal for a $1,000,000 challenge grant whose main purpose was to endow the Center with the long-term financial resources necessary to continue its summer seminars and publishing, build new partnerships, and provide visiting scholar opportunities and faculty development to enrich the undergraduate major and minor. NEH awarded that grant for the years 2003-2006, and hundreds of individual and institutional donors gave generously their money, time, and talent necessary to meet the challenge grant. It was also in 2002 that Marty joined Carol on the Hiram Campus, remaining there until his move to the Cleveland Clinic in 2009. So what started as a sharing of the winners of the William Carlos Williams poetry contest grew into an energetic Center that has nurtured and inspired students, health care professionals, literary and humanities scholars, writers, and many others—some local—but many from faraway places—for nearly 30 years….

ORIGINS

Verb Ballets’ Lift, Breathe, Carry, an interpretation of Jeanne Bryner’s poetry, performed at Hiram College in 2006.

Over the years, the Center has sponsored many artistic productions to help bring important issues and discussions to NE Ohio residents.

Unfinished BusinessDuring the span of 2000-2002, this play about organ donation was performed throughout Ohio on college campuses, in collaboration with our local Kaiser Permanente theater troupe. Support for these productions came through grants to NEOMED from the Ohio Department of Health Second Chance Trust Fund.

LuisLuis is based on a Richard Selzer short story by the same name and was premiered at the 2006 Summer Seminar. It has since been performed throughout Northeast Ohio as part of Verb Ballets’ repertoire.

Cancer in the ArtsDuring the fall of 2007, The Center for Literature and Medicine sponsored “Stages: Cancer and the Arts,” a series of presentations and discussions about cancer as it is portrayed in plays, literature, comic strips and art. Lecture: Eric Coble & Laurie Frey, Unbeatable, A Musical Journey Performance & Lecture: Jeff Nisker’s Sarah’s Daughters Performance: Margaret Edson’s W;tLecture: Tom Batiuk on Lisa’s Story: The Other Shoe

The Machine StopsIn the fall of 2007, the Center for Literature and Medicine had a production of E.M. Forester’s “The Machine Stops” reformatted as a radio play by Eric Coble and it was broadcast on the local NPR-affiliate, WCPN-FM.

Creative ArtsVentures

FortitudeIn the mid-2000s, a production of Fortitude was performed at Hiram College, and then taken on the road as a Readers’ Theater production throughout Northeast Ohio as a means of fostering community discussions about end-of-life care. The Center later sponsored a production of Kurt Vonnegut’s Fortitude that was broadcast live on the local NPR-affiliate, WCPN-FM, on October 24, 2008 and replayed a year later.

Lift, Breathe, CarryLift, Breathe, Carry is a performance about nursing performed by Verb Ballets, based on the book of poetry Tenderly Lift Me by Jeanne Bryner, a nurse poet. The dancers interpret the poems through dance as a narrator speaks the works. It was performed in 2007 throughout northeast Ohio and Western Pennsylvania.

An Exploration of Diseases and Disorders by Performance: AutismIn the fall of 2011, three Hiram College students, guided by then Assistant Director of the Center Brittany Jackson, conducted research on autism and many interviews with autists, their families, and other caregivers, as the basis for a performance piece intended to engage audiences in discussion of autism. In the spring of 2012, the performance piece traveled to venues all over Ohio.

Jason Ignacio of Verb Ballets performs as the title character in Luis.

Creative Arts Ventures |


Narrative Bioethics1992Seminar Director: Warren ReichFaculty Leader: Kathryn MontgomerySeminar Coordinators: Carol Donley and Martin Kohn

1993Seminar Director: Warren ReichFaculty Leaders: Kathryn Montgomery, Howard E. Brody, and Delese WearSeminar Coordinators: Carol Donley and Martin Kohn

1994 Seminar Director: Warren ReichFaculty Leaders: Brian Childs, Kathryn Montgomery, Jan Marta, and Robert NelsonSeminar Coordinators: Carol Donley and Martin KohnPROGRAMS

1992-1994

Summer Seminars

“Most of us spend our travel dollars going to big city conferences in hotels with cavernous ballrooms and endless lines at elevators. We manage these conferences by finding our small group of colleagues and friends and spending time with them. Hiram was the anti-conference in all ways possible. Because of the size and geography of Hiram College, anyone attending the fellowship and subsequent summer seminars became a member of a community that was together, dawn to dusk and beyond. Marty and Carol were responsible for this synergy of learning through what and how we studied and in every aspect of our time outside of the classroom. I’m sure I speak for every Hiram attendee who looks back fondly walking the ‘3-mile loop’ in the afternoon when we continued our discussions and more, forging friendships and alliances that continued years after we left Hiram. I am forever grateful for those experiences.”

NEH Institute for Humanities and Medicine1998-1999 First NEH Institute

1991-1992Second NEH Institute

1988-1992

Programs |

Delese Wear, Ph.D.Professor, Family and Community Medicine DepartmentNortheast Ohio University of Medicine


Narrative Bioethics

Seminar Director: Warren ReichFaculty Leaders: Brian Childs, Jan Marta and Robert NelsonSeminar Coordinators: Carol Donley, Martin Kohn, Tess Jones, and Delese Wear

1995 1996

Performing AIDS: Politics, Pedagogies, and PracticesConference Organizer: Tess Jones(Held at the Cleveland Clinic, supported by a grant from the Cleveland Foundation, jointly sponsored by the Human Values in Medicine Program of NEOUCOM, the Center for Literature, Medicine, and the Health Care Professions, the Bioethics Program at the Cleveland Clinic, the AIDS Project of Greater Cleveland, and Ohio Endowment for the Humanities)Speakers: Paula A. Treichler, David Roman, and Michael KearnsPerformers: Beto Araiza, Thodessa Jones and Idris Elba, Doug Holsclaw, and Tim Miller

1996Detachment and Engagement: Objectivity and Emotions in Clinical Practice Faculty Leaders: Howard Brody, Sandra Harding, Ellen More, and Rosemarie Tong Seminar Coordinators: Jack Coulehan, Carol Donley, Martin Kohn, John R. Stone, and Delese Wear

1997

Narratives of Care Faculty Leaders: Jack Coulehan, Cortney Davis, Hilde Nelson, Laurence Thomas, Rosemarie Tong, and John Stone Seminar Coordinators: Carol Donley, Martin Kohn, Carol Mitchell, and Delese Wear

1999Talking Ourselves to Death: Narratives and Caregiving at the End of LifeSeminar Director: Warren ReichFaculty Leaders: Brian Childs, Kathryn Montgomery, Jan Marta, and Robert NelsonSeminar Coordinators: Carol Donley and Martin Kohn

Time to Care: Narrative and Chronic Illness

Faculty Leaders: Arthur Frank, Darshan Perusek, David Hilfiker, Deborah Hoffmann, Hilde Nelson, Kenn McLaughlin, and Jodi MaileSeminar Coordinators: Carol Donley and Martin Kohn

2000 2001 2002

Narratives of Power in Health CareFaculty Leaders: Howard Brody, Amy Haddad, Annette Dula, Jodi Maile and Daniel HahnSeminar Coordinators: Carol Donley and Martin Kohn

2003Mortal Beings/Immortal Dreams: Dancing Around the Fountain of Youth Faculty-in-Residence: Thomas R. Cole, Eric Juengst, Guy MiccoGuest Faculty: Robert H. Binstock, Stephen G. Post, and Peter J. WhitehouseArtistic Partners: Jodi Maile, Young Park and Ezra HouserSeminar Coordinators: Carol Donley and Martin Kohn

2004

Quartet: Four Variations on the Theme of Human EnhancementResident Faculty: Anne Basting, Thomas H. Murray, Hilde Nelson, and Erik ParensVisiting Faculty: Andrei Codrescu and Raymond OndersArtists-in-Residence: Jodi Maile, Eric Coble, and Sarah MortonSeminar Coordinators: Carol Donley, Martin Kohn, and Eric Juengst

Caring for Caregivers: Long Day’s Journey Into Night Faculty Leaders: Cortney Davis, Lester Friedman, Marilyn Krysl, Kenn McLaughlin and Jodi Maile, Margaret Mohrmann, Gregg VandefkieftSeminar Coordinators: Carol Donley and Martin Kohn

SUMMER SEMINARS

“In those early days, we all lived in the dorms, were issued a bulky three-ring binder of classic articles and spent every day engaged in lively—sometimes even a bit heated—conversations with our fellow students and teachers....Even more important, however, were the people I met during those classes, many of whom have become significant figures in our field and with whom I have formed lasting friendships: the Hiram Mafia.”

Programs |

Lester Friedman, Ph.D.Emeritus Professor, Media and Society Program Hobart and William Smith Colleges


2011 2014

Age, Ability, and Healthcare(Jointly sponsored by the Northeast Ohio Medical University)Faculty Leaders: Anne Basting, Thomas Cole, Rebecca Garden, Laurie Clements LambethDiscussion Facilitators: Sarah Berry, Michael Blackie, Gretchen Case, Andrea Charise, Aimi Hamraie, Erin Gentry Lamb, and Leni MarshallSeminar Coordinators: Erin Gentry Lamb and Michael Blackie

2016Emerging Diversities in Health Humanities TeachingFaculty Leaders: Julie Aultman, Stephanie Brown Clark, Katherine Burke, Marianne Chiafery, Siobhan Conaty, Susan Dodge-Peters Daiss, Jessica Hume, Craig Klugman, Leni Marshall, Sylvia Pamboukian, Liz Piatt, and Margie Hodges ShawSeminar Coordinators: Erin Lamb and Sarah Berry

2018

Public Health Humanities: Audience, Engagement, and Social JusticeFaculty Leaders: Therese Jones, Craig Klugman, Arno Kumagai, Kirsten Ostherr, Lise Saffran, and Joe ZarconiSeminar Coordinators: Erin Lamband Emily Waples

On Healers and Healing: Exploring the Why, What and How of Medical Humanities PedagogyFaculty Leaders: Catherine Belling, Jack Coulehan, Rebecca Garden, Anne Hudson Jones, Bradley Lewis, and Allan PeterkinSeminar Coordinators: Michael Blackie, Therese Jones, Erin Lamb, and Delese Wear

Human Enhancement Technologies: Through the Looking Glass of Drama

(Held at the Joseph E. Cole Center of Cleveland State University, co-sponsored by Cleveland State University Division of Continuing Education)Symposium Directors: Carol Donley, Martin Kohn, and Eric JeungstPresenting Faculty: Carl Elliott, Jennifer Fishman, Eric Juengst, Maxwell Mehlman, Roxanne Mykitiuk, Jeff Nisker, and Julian SavulescuWriters-in-Residence: Kristin Ohlson and Harvey Pekar

2005 2006

Global Health Care Justice(In partnership with Tuskeegee University National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care and co-sponsored by Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine Department of Bioethics)Faculty Leaders: Lorraine Bonner, Gilbert Doho, David Hilfiker, Insoo Hyun, Masalakulangwa Mabula, Maghboeba Mosavel, Richard Selzer, and Chris Simon Guest Artists: Verb BalletsSymposium Coordinators: Carol Donley, Martin Kohn, Isaac Mwase, and Eric Juengst

2007Leveraging Change: The Politics and Economics of Global Poverty and Health Care(Co-sponsored by Inamori International Center for Ethics and Excellence at CWRU and the Bioethics Network of Ohio)Symposium Leaders: Roger Cram, Ruth DeGolia, Gilbert Doho, Roy Jacobstein, James Kazura, Elizabeth Kucinich, Patricia Marshall, Catherine Monnin, Isaac M.T. Mwase, Casey Parks, Stephen J. Petras, Dennis Raphael, Linda Rea, and Sonia ShahGuest Artists: Warren Byrd, David Chevan, Gary Harwood, David Hassler, and Chloë HopsonSymposium Coordinators: Carol Donley, Martin Kohn, Patricia Marshall, Isaac M.T. Mwase

2008

Return to the House of God: (W)rites of Passage(Co-sponsored by the Department of Academic Medicine, Cleveland Clinic, with support from The Wish, Cope & Life Foundation, and in cooperation with ASBH)Presenters: Keith Armitage, Jay Baruch, Stephen Bergman, Howard Brody, Stephanie Brown Clark, Dagan Coppock, Martha L. Elks, Amy Marie Haddad, Neeta Jain, Anne Hudson Jones, Perri Klass, Howard Markel, Suzanne Poirier, Larry Smith, Janet Surrey, Marc Zaffran, and Abigail ZugerSeminar Coordinators: Martin Kohn and Carol Donley

2010The Role of Narrative in Science and Medicine: 1990-2010Featured Speakers: Rita Charon and Richard PrestonWriting Workshop Leaders: Rita Charon, Joyce DyerGuest Artist: Verb BalletsSeminar Coordinators: Colleen Fried, Sandy Madar, Michael Blackie, and Erin Lamb

SUMMER SEMINARS

“The conference attendance list read like a ‘who’s who’ of health humanities...but what was even more important for me was the sense of community, laughter, and inclusivity at the conference and the Center. I distinctly recall looking around during one of the sessions and saying to myself, ‘Wow! These are my peeps! I’m finally home!’”

Programs |

Arno K. Kumagai, M.D.Professor and Vice Chair for Education,Department of Medicine F.M. Hill Chair in Humanism Education, University of Toronto


.

“Meeting Carol and Marty, followed by the publication of Tenderly Lift Me, was life changing....My book did not fit into a specific genre, as many publishers were quick to inform me, but lucky for me, Carol and Marty were used to pushing boundaries.’”

Jeanne Bryner, R.N.Registered Nurse and Poet Trumbull Memorial Hospital

KSU Literature and Medicine Book SeriesMichael Blackie, Editor Carol Donley and Martin Kohn, Founding Editors (1992-2009)

The Literature and Medicine series focuses on the human context of illness and health through multiple genres; from poems, short stories, and drama to critical essays, memoirs, and historical accounts. Titles in the series are designed to provide students, educators, and health care professionals with key texts and strategies for humanities-based inquiry.

Literature and Aging: An Anthology Edited by Martin Kohn, Carol Donley, and Delese Wear

The Tyranny of the Normal: An Anthology Edited by Carol Donley and Sheryl Buckley

What’s Normal? Narratives of Mental and Emotional Disorders Edited by Carol Donley and Sheryl Buckley

Recognitions: Doctors and Their Stories Edited by Carol Donley and Martin Kohn

Chekhov’s Doctors: A Collection of Chekhov’s Medical TalesEdited by Jack Coulehan

Tenderly Lift Me: Nurses Honored, Celebrated, and RememberedJeanne Bryner

The Poetry of Nursing: Poems and Commentaries of Leading Nurse-PoetsEdited by Judy Schaefer

Our Human Hearts: A Medical and Cultural JourneyAlbert Howard Carter IIIBOOK SERIES

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Book Series |


Selection of covers from the KSU Literature and Medicine Book Series, 1992-2017.

KSU Literature and Medicine Book Series

Fourteen Stories: Doctors, Patients, and Other StrangersJay Baruch

Stories of Illness and Healing: Women Write Their BodiesEdited by Sayantani DasGupta and Marsha Hurst

Wider than the Sky: Essays and Meditations on the Healing Power of Emily DickinsonEdited by Cindy Mackenzie and Barbara Dana

Lisa’s Story: The Other ShoeTom Batiuk

Bodies and Barriers: Dramas of Dis-EaseEdited by Angela Belli

The Spirit of the Place: A NovelSamuel Shem

Return to The House of God: Medical Resident Education 1978-2008Edited by Martin Kohn and Carol Donley

The Heart’s Truth: Essays on the Art of NursingCortney Davis

9 Beyond Forgetting: Poetry and Prose about Alzheimer’s DiseaseEdited by Holly J. Hughes

The Country Doctor Revisited: A Twenty-First Century ReaderEdited by Therese Zink

The Widows’ Handbook: Poetic Reflections on Grief and SurvivalEdited by Jacqueline Lapidus and Lise Menn

What’s Left OutJay Baruch

When the Nurse Becomes a Patient: A Story in Words and ImagesCortney Davis

Mysterious Medicine: The Doctor-Scientist Tales of Hawthorne and PoeEdited by L. Kerr Dunn

Keeping Reflection Fresh: A Practical Guide for Clinical EducatorsEdited by Allan Peterkin and Pamela Brett-MacLean

Human Voices Wake UsJerald Winakur

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Book Series |


Felice AullI am so pleased to write a reflection for this award honoring The Center for Literature and Medicine at Hiram College and its founders, Carol Donley and Martin Kohn. The Center and the individuals I met there changed my life and my career, beginning with a summer seminar I attended at Hiram 25 years ago. I had only recently become aware that the field of literature and medicine existed and was fascinated. A neophyte without formal training in literature, I had been pursuing my profession as a medical educator and basic science researcher. But I was an avid reader and had started a literature and medicine discussion group at NYU School of Medicine where I taught. At the five-day Hiram seminar, I found the discussions immensely stimulating and informative, and was heartened and moved by the generous spirit with which I, untutored, was accepted and encouraged by Carol Donley and Martin Kohn. In addition to Carol and Martin, I met others—Delese Wear, Lois Nixon, Jack Coulehan—whose work was eye-opening. Soon after, they all agreed to collaborate with me on the Literature and Medicine Database website project. I learned so much from them and from the ongoing work of the Center. The Center and the people associated with it were instrumental in helping the Database project to grow and thrive, just as they vastly enriched my personal and professional life.

Tom AndrewsThere is much in my life that gives me pleasure when I look

back on it. Nothing, however, matches the sense of pride in being a part of the Center for Literature and Medicine, meeting and enjoying the friendship with Carol Donley and watching the Center and its programs grow over the years into such a dynamic force. My thanks to all those who made this possible in the past and to all those who will shepherd the Center on into the future. REFLECTIONS

Felice Aull, Ph.D.Founder of the Literature,

Arts, and Medicine Database

Tom Andrews, M.D.Dermatologist

(Retired)

“There is a special way of gardening called companion planting, in which the gardener places plants that enhance each other close together, and each plant grows stronger and more fruitful because of its neighbors....

The health humanities garden is fortunate to have been so thoughtfully tended and fertilized and watered by Marty, Carol, and the Center for Literature and Medicine for so long. I and so many others are forever grateful for their green thumb.”

Katherine Burke, M.F.A.Program Manager, Foundations of Medicine Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine

Reflections |


Michael BlackieWhen I joined the Center for Literature and Medicine in 2008, I knew the affiliation would be valuable for supporting my interests as a scholar and educator, and it certainly provided me that support, for which I am most grateful. What I did not realize, however, was how many leaders in the health humanities consider the Center a touchstone in the

development of their careers. Martin Kohn and Carol Donley’s foresight created a space where scholars, artists, and physicians could gather to exchange ideas and learn from one another. I am humbled and honored to have played a small role in keeping that space vibrant for future leaders in the field of health humanities. I especially want to acknowledge Carol Donley, whose determination and generosity, humor and imagination made the Center for Literature and Medicine possible. I, like so many others in the field, owe her more than I can ever repay.

Jeanne BrynerIt must have been early summer, 2003, when I first met Carol Donley at Mahan House in Hiram to discuss my manuscript, Tenderly Lift Me: Nurses Honored, Celebrated and Remembered. Carol was warm, welcoming and enthusiastic about nursing poems I’d crafted from

research and oral histories. Not long after, I met Dr. Martin Kohn. Meeting Carol and Marty, followed by the publication of Tenderly Lift Me, was life changing. These poems have been in medical periodicals, small journals, staged as a play directed by Nicole Pearce, (Intensive Care) for Edinburgh’s 2004 Fringe Festival and later, thanks to Marty and Dr. Maggie Carlson of Verb Ballets, a ballet (Lift, Breathe, Carry). My book did not fit into a specific genre, as many publishers were quick to inform me, but lucky for me, Carol and Marty were used to pushing boundaries. Looking back, I’d attended Hiram’s humanities conferences, but didn’t truly know Carol or Marty.

because it wasn’t another House of God—Martin and Carol stepped up and got it published in their Literature and Medicine series with the Kent State University Press. It got rave revues, won two national “Best Novel of the Year” awards, and is in paperback in Penguin. Recently House was named on the Publisher’s Weekly List of ‘The 10 Best Satires of all Time’ as Number 2 (#1 was Don Quixote, #3 was Catch-22). It just goes to show: live long enough, the ones who hate you either die or retire—and, luckily for us and the world, Hiram and Martin and Carol “not only endure, but prevail.”

Sarah BerryFor me, the Center for Literature and Medicine is the medical humanities. It’s not often that a single seminar sets the course of a whole career, but that is what the 2011 seminar did for me. It was my first meeting with colleagues and field leaders, many of whom have been integral to my development as a teacher and scholar, and many of whom are now also friends. The range of colleagues

who gather and collaborate through the Center is astonishing—physicians, artists, nurses, scholars, pharmacists, poets, teachers, creative writers, activists, and students come together through the Center in generative ways that are not matched elsewhere. I believe that the warm tenor, generous exchanges, and mutually supportive ethos in the community of health humanities is largely thanks to the precedent set by the Center for Literature and Medicine from its beginning. I am so grateful for this community (and frequently brag about it to colleagues). In addition to the summer seminars, the programming of the Center throughout each academic year has been an enormous boon to my students and me at Hiram, inspiring us to continually pose new intersectional questions about health and medicine such as, for example, through age studies, critical race theory, and world history. My deep investment in the field of medical and health humanities and in the work of my cherished colleagues is the living legacy of the Center. Brava, Carol, and bravo, Marty. Our field is burgeoning because of your vision and generosity, which sustains us and will nourish generations to come.

Jay Baruch I came to the world of medical humanities rather late in my career. I was in the deep end of my mid-thirties when I attended my first ASBH meeting in Salt Lake City in 2000. While checking out the abstracts, one guy just came up to me and introduced himself. His name: Marty Kohn. He was an inquisitive sort, and I had kept to myself for much of the meeting. I was a barely published fiction writer, a new father, an ER doc. I felt unprepared and overwhelmed by the presentations at the meeting, which is why I was in the hallway perusing the abstracts. Now I was being chatted up by a guy who, on first blush, seemed normal enough,

but who knows? Like so many people, I’m privileged to call Marty Kohn my friend. He’s also been a mentor, a connector, a forward-thinking innovator. Over the years, we’ve roomed together at conferences, and he and his wife have opened their beautiful home to me when I’ve come to Cleveland. There is much to tease Marty about, but what happens at ASBH stays at ASBH. More importantly, this is a moment of appreciation, to acknowledge his friendship, guidance, and generosity. I’m forever grateful for an extraordinary community of medical humanities scholars who have helped me shape my ideas about what is possible in it. However, it begins with Marty. His ideas and his work, his varied partnerships, his unceasing curiosity about what is possible, and his compassion and kindness, have left deep imprints in my projects and serve as aspirational goals for my career. It’s been seventeen years since that day at ASBH. I don’t know why he decided to talk to me. But that chance conversation, ultimately, changed the arc of my career. After I nervously gave my first presentation at ASBH, on one of those late Sunday slots when it feels that everyone in the room who isn’t checking their flight times are hotel employees impatiently waiting to stack the many empty chairs, Carol Donley approached me. She took her time. She wasn’t in a rush. Her kind words about my paper were enough to fly me home. She also insisted on seeing my fiction manuscript that I had politely and self-consciously declined to send to her in an earlier conversation. I shook her off again. But she refused to take my ‘no.’ She even forced her business card into my hand and refused to take it back. Then, for good measure, she tapped at it. “I want to see it.”

So began the process that led to more than the publication of my first book of short fiction, but represented my first stumbling steps into a career for which I felt passionate and yet unprepared. Throughout my career, my journey has taken me time and time again to Hiram College. I’ve learned so much from Carol and Marty, and the incredible medical humanities people in northeast Ohio, who include Delese Wear and Joe Zarconi, but the list goes on, and then Erin Gentry Lamb and the new generation of scholars who are brilliant, innovative and generous beyond compare. It seems everyone has a story from one of Hiram’s humanities summer conferences, but here’s one story that’s suitable for public consumption. After one particular conference, my flight home left ridiculously early from Cleveland. The day before, I tried to arrange a taxi or car service for the 50-minute ride. Don’t worry, said Carol. We’ll drive you. I couldn’t talk her out of it. So, at 4 am, on a quiet, humid Sunday morning, the birds too tired to chirp until they had their coffee, and yet Carol and her husband Al were waiting for me, the car engine idling, the door open.

StephenBergmanIn the old days, when my first novel The House of God, about medical internship, was published in 1978, there was a split in generations of doctors. The older generation, especially those self-craving-incarnate teachers at my alma mater Harvard Medical

School, to a man (there were few women) hated it, and reviled me. My generation found their truth in the novel, with some humor and sex. A few people and institutions stood up for the novel and me, among them Martin Kohn and Carol Donley and Hiram. They supported my visits there, and on the novel’s 30th birthday organized a dynamite two-day symposium at the Cleveland Clinic and published a wonderful volume on it: Return to The House of God: Medical Residency Education 1978-2008. Both of them were such brave, warm, smart people, we became great friends. Even more, years later when no publisher would touch another novel, The Spirit of the Place—

Jay Baruch, M.D. Associate Professor

of Emergency Medicine Director, Medical Humanities and Bioethics Scholarly Concentration

The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University

Stephen Bergman, M.D. (a.k.a. Samuel Shem)

Physician and Author, Clinical Professor, Departments of Medicine and Psychiatry

and Professor of Medical HumanitiesNew York University Langone

Medical Center

Sarah Berry, Ph.D.Independent Scholar

Michael Blackie, Ph.D. Visiting Associate Professor,

Department of Medical Education

The University of Illinois College of Medicine, Chicago

Jeanne Bryner, R.N.Registered Nurse and Poet,

Trumbull Memorial Hospital

Reflections |


Katherine BurkeThere is a special way of gardening called companion planting, in which the gardener places plants that enhance each other close together, and each plant grows stronger and more fruitful because of its neighbors. Beans and cabbages thrive together, and so do tomatoes and carrots. Marty Kohn is an expert in companion planting. He sows medical students next to artists and neighborhood organizations,

and each one learns from the others, developing relationships where there were none before. He uses theatre to enhance students’ reflective writing, he sneaks literature into classes about health care systems, he puts together historians and poets to shed light on health and illness. And as for me, he thought it would be a good idea to have a theatre artist teach in a medical school. In each case, Marty’s companion planting has created more abundance, a lusher ecosystem. The health humanities garden is fortunate to have been so thoughtfully tended and fertilized and watered by Marty, Carol, and the Center for Literature and Medicine for so long. I and so many others are forever grateful for their green thumb.

Margaret Carlson Years ago, Verb Ballets was approached to create a ballet about medical waste and the lack of proper disposal of waste materials. It was to a script by Eric Coble, based on the short story “Luis” by Richard Selzer, about a poor young boy who is exposed to radioactive medical waste and dies. This was our first exposure to this issue and we found this to be a very challenging concept to work with. Stretching our creative limits, the choreographer,

Mark Tomasic, was able to create a work of lasting impression. In a later project with the Center, Dr. Margaret Carlson was asked to create a ballet about the mental and psychological stress experienced in the nursing profession, using the poems written by Nurse Jeanne Bryner. Again, we found this to be a learning experience that further enlightened our sensibilities about medicine and its potential negative by-products.

Brian ChildsI considered it an act of grace when I was included in the NEH-sponsored year long program at Hiram College and the medical school then known as NEOUCOM. This was 1991-1992. I was part of a remarkable group of 25 or so physicians, nurses, lawyers, poets, and philosophers. I was the only theologian. Though I did study with Paul Ramsey at Princeton,

I did not then consider myself one who was involved in medical humanities. Nonetheless, there I was on a monthly basis meeting with my cohort with some remarkable faculty: Rita Charon, Howard Brody, Joseph Chaikin, Katheryn Montgomery Hunter, Lois Nixon, and Warren Reich among others. Carol Donley and Marty Kohn were the alchemists that helped turn the faculty and fellows into a driving force for innovation in healthcare education. Pure gold. That one year altered the course of my life. It opened up new avenues for teaching and writing. From it I have lifelong friendships. After my yearlong fellowship, I was asked to be a resource for summer programs at the Center. I even finished one of my books writing at night at Mahan House while during the day assisting Warren Reich in one summer seminar. It was all such a generative experience. The Cornerstone Award is a testimony to the Center of Literature and Medicine and its influence on generations of scholars, artists, and educators. Carol and Marty are the geniuses behind it all. Te Deum.

Eric CobleI had the great honor and pleasure of working with the Center for Literature and Medicine several times. It was because of Martin and Carol that we adapted E.M. Forster’s “The Machine Stops” into a radio and stage play on the Hiram campus—a script which has gone on to dozens

In the ensuing years, Verb Ballets has continued to work with Hiram College by delivering its dance curriculum. Hiram College is a forward thinking institution and its Center for Literature and Medicine causes all who come under its influence to change in their ways of thinking and ways of connecting issues in our world. Kudos on this incredible award. It is so well deserved!!

Rita Charon

Dear friends and colleagues,I join my voice to the chorus of praise and congratulations to the Center for Literature and Medicine of Hiram College on the occasion of its receipt of the Cornerstone Award from the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities. What creative, consequential, and absolutely pioneering work the Center has accomplished in the medical humanities! Carol Donley and Martin Kohn were the visionaries who believed unconditionally in the power of the arts and humanities to benefit medicine and patients. They created a clearing at Hiram in which

we early proponents of this at-the-time preposterous idea could gather in safety and splendor, to think the thoughts and experience the experiences that have culminated in now decades of work in our remarkable discipline. I can bring back in great detail seminars I taught at Hiram decades ago, with colleagues, including Suzanne Poirier and Chuck Anderson, who became our leaders and teachers. I remember teaching Joyce’s “The Dead” and coming to understand, only in the teaching of it there, some of the story’s mystery and power. I remember bringing Jane Austen’s fragment Sanditon to the table for a raucous discussion of the valetudinarian and the gentleness of the irony with which it was treated. It was not so much the content, in retrospect, that held the power of Hiram but the commitment and the then wacky practice of marrying medical care with beauty, with creativity, with doubt, and with existential wonder. We are in wonder still, and we owe so much of our current strength to Carol, to Marty, and to Hiram for having traveled as far as we have. Kudos all!

Jeanne Bryner, continued

I didn’t know we’d become friends and my world views would be enlarged by presenting, team-teaching college courses, and serving on Hiram’s Advisory Board over the next fourteen years. Our shared passion for the braiding of science and art tunneled and bloomed. More nurse edited and authored books were welcomed to the Literature and Medicine Series, published by Kent State University Press. When Carol and Marty moved on, Dr. Michael Blackie and Dr. Erin Lamb took over the Center. Again, I felt a kinship with brilliant minds that planned events meant to challenge and delight students, community members and scholars. It’s difficult to describe what happens at Hiram’s Center for Literature and Medicine, because it’s alive, organic and always changing. What a blessing to have a national treasure so close, to count visionaries like Carol, Marty, Erin and Michael my friends. What a gift. For me. For all who come to this well, this deep, rich well.

Sheryl BuckleyIn the fall of 1989, I was a new member of the Board of Trustees of Hiram College and Carol

Donley was the faculty chair. We were walking across campus on a beautiful fall day, discussing the headlines from the morning paper. They reported that geneticists were claiming that in 20 years or so babies could be “custom designed” by their prospective parents who would be able to specify about 20 choices from a panel of perhaps 300 desired traits. This led to us speculate that there would be an enormous number of very tall men available to the BA in the future and a significant increase in the number of blue-eyed blonds. Nature, however, seems to favor variability so designing offspring would be a biologically risky business. This conversation led Carol to suggest that we might offer a course in the Weekend College that examined the idea of normality from multiple perspectives, biological, medical, social, psychological and experiential. My teaching career at Hiram was launched that morning. This conversation led to 20 years of teaching two courses with Carol, “The Tyranny of the Normal” and “What’s Normal? Narratives of Mental and Emotional Disorders” and working with Carol and Marty on two volumes in the Literature and Medicine book series with the same titles.

Sheryl L. Buckley, M.D., M.S.Anesthesiologist (Retired), Founder and Director, Rockside Surgery Center of St.

Vincent Charity Hospitals

Katherine Burke, M.F.A.Program Manager,

Foundations of MedicineCleveland Clinic Lerner

College of Medicine

Margaret Carlson, Ph.D.Producing Artistic Director,

Verb Ballets

Rita Charon, M.D., Ph.D.Professor of Medicine

at Columbia University Medical Center

Executive Director, Program in Narrative

MedicineDirector, The Virginia

Apgar Academy for Medical Educators

Columbia University

Brian H. Childs, Ph.D.Professor of Bioethics and

ProfessionalismDirector of Ethics Education

Mercer University School of Medicine

Columbus, Macon, and Savannah, Georgia

Eric CoblePlaywright and Screenwriter

Reflections |


books I was already reading. That first summer, Hiram seemed like something out of “Brigadoon,” a safe, secluded place where we could trade ideas and expand our knowledge. It was a “green world” world crafted by Carol and Marty, encouraging, inspiring, challenging, and patiently guiding us. In those early days, we all lived in the dorms, were issued a bulky three-ring binder of classic articles and spent every day engaged in lively—sometimes even a bit heated—conversations with our fellow students and teachers. (Nights, we went to play bingo in the local church or visited the one bar within our reach.) Even more important, however, were the people I met during those classes, many of whom have become significant figures in our field and with whom I have formed lasting friendships: the Hiram Mafia. Going back to Upstate, I no longer felt like an isolated voice and had a briefcase full of new concepts to teach students. So, for me, Hiram was not only a wellspring of substantive intellectual engagement, but also became an initiation into a community of scholars who graciously shared their knowledge, their excitement, and their commitment to an emerging field of inquiry.

Tess GallagherI so appreciate the Center and the work Carol and Marty have done. My time with them is unforgettable to me. I met medical students with Holly Hughes and we discussed Alzheimer’s from the terms of our anthology Beyond Forgetting. We found the questions and observations of the

students wonderfully pertinent and I think we opened their thinking in the human dimension of what happens to a life so challenged by the falling away of memory—but to re-instate more than what remains, but what always is that essence of being when we are involved with a human presence in whatever state. I congratulate The Center for Literature and Medicine at Hiram College on winning the Cornerstone Award at this year’s American Society for Bioethics and Humanities conference. Marty Kohn, a long-time friend, and Carol Donley who collaborates so brilliantly with him, deserve this award, and I send my applause all the way from the West of Ireland!

humor, the way Carol and Martin put every visitor immediately at ease. Of course I must pay tribute to their organization, their imagination, their innovation, their patience, and their focused attention to the needs of each individual, whether at the Center for a day or a week. And the conferences! The Center welcomes a group of strangers who, by conference end, guided by Carol and Martin, become an intimate, cohesive family, hearts and minds open, eager, and grateful. Carol and Martin never failed to provide attendees wonderful moments of laughter and ample opportunities for deep thought and sharing. With them, I always felt emotionally and spiritually safe. Yehuda Amichai said that when words fail, that’s when poetry begins. And Carol and Martin have led and endowed the Center with the most beautiful kind of “poetry”—personal, wise, and welcoming. Being with them, working with them, spending time at the Center have been, for me, opportunities of great joy, creativity, and education. I cherish the Center; I long to return. May Carol and Martin’s influence and love continue to inform and guide the Center for endless years to come.

Lester D. FriedmanWhen I first arrived at Upstate Medical Center, lo these many years (actually decades) ago, I found myself adrift among a sea of white coats. The people wearing those coats, who always seemed in a great hurry, spoke a language I could barely decipher and performed procedures that often turned my stomach. I immediately started searching for allies, both inside and outside the institution. In these

dark ages, no internet existed, so it was difficult to find colleagues engaged in what ultimately became known as the Medical Humanities—but was then called merely “Literature and Medicine.” Fortunately, I stumbled across Jo Bank’s early works, so I knew some people out there, somewhere, were also struggling to chart pathways through the medical school forest. But, the revelatory discovery for me was the Center for Literature and Medicine at Hiram. I remember receiving notice about a during-the-school-year program that I couldn’t attend, later followed by the announcement of a summer narrative bioethics session taught by world-famous scholars, many of whose

Eric Coble, continued

of incarnations around the world. It was because of them that I got to meet so many brilliant scientific and artistic minds in the hothouse of the conferences, delving into philosophical conversations that I am still pondering today. And it is because of the Center, Martin, and Carol, that my interest in artistically exploring the ethics of scientific advancement, both on stage and in the real lives of medical students, continues to this day. What a gift. Thank you.

Thomas ColeOver the last 20 years, I had the privilege of presenting at two summer retreats led by Marty Kohn and Carol Donley, who gave so much of themselves to build the Center with their teaching and publishing. These retreats were a terrific mix of intellectual engagement, poetry, physical movement, and sheer fun. I always learned more than I taught. I remember a friendly disagreement with Jack Coulehan about whether the

life cycle was a matter of culture or nature. We both won that debate. There were no party lines. We read Vonnegut and did Reader’s Theater. Participants came from all disciplines and from all over the country—a great mingling of undergraduate students, physicians, nurses, academic humanists, bioethicists. One year, Carol and Marty led a summer seminar in literature, ethics, and aging in literature. I remember doing an exercise in which two figures knocked on your door: a salesman from the NIA who offered you eternal life and a hooded figure with a scythe who gave you a fixed number of years to live. Which one do you let into your house? A question more pertinent than ever. Long before we had the words “health humanities,” “cultural studies,” “reflective writing” or “narrative medicine,” the Center was helping us see how close reading of texts develops critical thinking, and expands the moral imagination. How disciplined writing sharpens the eye for dialogue and sensuous detail, even as it promotes self-knowledge. How long collaboration leads to important publications and collegial networks. Now the Center is in the capable hands of Erin Lamb, whose scholarship and national programmatic leadership are again placing the Center at the forefront of our fields. Bravo.

Coulehan, JackIn 1988, I was an academic internist and epidemiologist struggling to find a way forward in my career—and in my life. I had recently helped found the Center for Medical Ethics at Pitt, published a textbook on medical interviewing, and begun to write (of all things!) poems about my experience as a physician. But how did all this fit together? Was I moving

in a meaningful direction? Just at that point, I was invited to join the first round of “fellows in medical humanities” at Hiram’s Center for Literature and Medicine. During the year-long program, I met many practitioners and educators who would later become colleagues, but mostly I learned a lot about myself and what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. Notably, it was at Hiram, and under the nourishing influence of Carol Donley and Marty Kohn, that I first had the courage to read my poems in public. Subsequently, I participated in many summer seminars at the Center—learning, teaching, and experiencing both the excitement of sharing ideas and the quiet satisfaction of belonging to the “Hiram family.” Membership in that family gave me confidence and direction for the rest of my career. Carol and Marty created an environment and a community that have been of inestimable value to me, to my fellow Hiramites, and to the field of medical humanities in general.

Davis, CortneyCongratulations to the Center for Literature and Medicine and especially to Carol Donley and Martin Kohn—their vision, compassion, and deep love for the intertwined disciplines of literature and medicine have touched and enriched so many. What wonderful memories I have of my time spent at the Center! First comes Carol’s warm welcome and strong embrace, then Martin’s hello, his right-on subtle

Thomas R. Cole, Ph.D.Director, McGovern Center for

Humanities and EthicsMcGovern Chair in Medical Humanities

The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

Jack Coulehan, M.D., M.P.H.Emeritus Professor, Department

of Family, Population and Preventive Medicine

Senior Fellow of the Center for Medical Humanities,

Compassionate Care, and BioethicsStony Brook University, SUNY

Cortney Davis, RN, M.A., CFCP

Nurse, Poet, Writer

Lester Friedman, Ph.D.Emeritus Professor,

Media and Society Program Hobart and William

Smith Colleges

Tess GallagherPoet, Essayist, and Short

Story Writer

Reflections | 22 | Hiram College Center for Literature and Medicine


under-rehearsed, and performed without costumes, make-up, or tech, scripts in-hand. It was one of the finest experiences of my theatrical career. They were the best audience I have ever played to. They devoured each moment, their attention was palpable, and subsequently incorporated what they gleaned into the seminar. The Center has grown in many ways, and deserves whatever awards it gets, but I still see, at its core, the joy in that kind of “Ah-Ha!” moment.

Tess JonesSo here I am. A few years after finishing a Ph.D. in English and leaving both my geographic and disciplinary home to do a post-doc in a field that none of my colleagues had ever heard of. My initial immersion in medical humanities was a week-long seminar at the Center for Literature and Medicine at Hiram College. It was the first of many opportunities for listening to and learning from leading scholars and inspirational educators gathered around the big table at Mahan House such as Howard Brody, Jack Coulehan, Les Friedman, Sandra Harding, David Hilfiker, Anne Hudson Jones, Kathryn Montgomery,

Rosie Tong, and Delese Wear. It was also the beginning of deep and abiding relationships with colleagues from across the country. Perhaps, it came from sharing dorm rooms, enjoying backyard picnics, playing bingo and engaging in intense discussions of theories, interpretations, texts and ambitions. But Hiram not only educated me--it imprinted me. Yes, I took away reading lists, course ideas, and new projects from every meeting there, but I also took away the experience of real collegiality and true community. I will always carry Hiram with me, and I am forever grateful to Carol Donley and Marty Kohn for welcoming me there.

2009, as part of the Literature and Medicine Series. Carol and Marty not only accepted the manuscript, but steadfastly supported me through the complex, year-long publication process. I was delighted to have an opportunity later that year to meet them when Tess Gallagher, who wrote the book’s foreword, and I were invited to the Cleveland Clinic to speak to medical students about the role of poetry, as well as give several readings. We were treated well: Carol and her husband took us out to dinner, and Marty devoted a day to taking us to all the museums in Cleveland! I was happy to be invited to return in the spring of 2016 for the Arts and Health Humanities Conference, where I again witnessed Marty’s tireless commitment to ensuring the humanities are an integral part of medical education. I left the conference knowing we’re all more likely to be in compassionate hands with the next generation of doctors, thanks to Carol, Marty and all the good work of the Center for Literature and Medicine at Hiram College.

Hyde, Richard

When I was teaching or directing, there was a moment that I loved above all others. Although it could happen around a campfire, or in a rehearsal hall, I mostly recall it in the classroom. When trying to convince students that Oedipus was not a waste of

time, I would eventually get around to Aristotle. Often someone would brighten. They had studied Aristotle in another class, the list of possibilities is impressive, and the light brightened as she, or he, merged different strains of knowledge, reveling in information they had considered useless post-exam. My attachment to the Center for Literature and Medicine was mainly through the Summer Seminars, driven by Carol and Marty, which intentionally stimulated and nurtured those moments, and reinforced, to everyone, the value of interdisciplinarity. I recall one summer where Carol, in the midst of the seminar, re-did the schedule to include a reading of a play, Carol Churchill’s A Number, and convinced an intern (biology/theatre major Mike Metzger) to perform it with me. We were nervous,

Rebecca Garden Home: the Center for Literature and Medicine at Hiram has created a home for scholars, educators, artists, and other practitioners of the cross-disciplinary and interprofessional health humanities. Some of the most important work I have done originated in a Hiram summer seminar, where the audience was so diverse in expertise and experience, such an ideal balance of rigorous, critical, and supportive, that what began as tentative, experimental work soon flourished. I have learned new strategies and texts for educating and new modes of interpretation from the impressive

array of presenters at Hiram summer seminars. The more intimate scale of the seminars fostered productive conversations, some of which flowered into relationships that have shaped my work in profound ways. Hiram’s Center is a home for health humanities practitioners who often reside in the interstices of disciplines, professions, and institutions. It is a home for those who see the health humanities as a critical, social approach to healing. I am so grateful for the sense of belonging and community that Hiram’s Center has fostered.

Amy HaddadMy memories of my visits to the Center for Literature and Medicine in Health Care are tied deeply to the place itself, the people and all of the literature I was exposed to and return to so often in my teaching and writing. I am one of the lucky ones who stayed at Mahan House for a week one time to write poetry, talk with new and old friends, share meals, and walk up and down the green hills of Hiram. Each visit provided a feast of humanities including fiction, poetry, theater, literary criticism and the chance to experiment and learn with people from so many different backgrounds. Carol Donley and Marty Kohn were well-ahead of their time in so many ways as they built the foundation for a place and programs that now serves as a

model for interprofessional collaboration in its truest sense. They ensured that each event, conference, or anthology had a clear purpose but were also open to

the spontaneous call of creative energy that could lead the participants in new directions. They were, and are, masters at creating a culture of trust, mutual respect, and playfulness by modeling these behaviors in every project they undertook. I have benefitted personally and professionally from each encounter with the Center where I found life-long friends and the courage to pursue my own creative work.

David HilfikerAs a regular participant in seminars at the Center for Literature and Medicine, I have been grateful for the opportunity to speak about the intersection of medicine with the social issues of our country, especially inner-city poverty. Stories about the lack

of medical care are for so many of us an important complement to the non-fiction literature that highlights the suffering of the poor. The Center, under the sensitive guidance of Carol Donley and Martin Kohn, has been a unique place to tell those stories.

HollyHughesAs an English major and the daughter of a physician, I’ve always thought bringing literature and medicine together made good sense—and I was thrilled to hear that the Center

for Literature and Medicine at Hiram College is receiving the Cornerstone Award for their many years of dedication to doing just that. They were clearly decades ahead of their time in their vision, as we are just now beginning to see the humanities integrated into the field of medicine. I’m grateful for this opportunity to acknowledge the instrumental role that the series editors, Carol Donley and Martin Kohn, played in the publication of my anthology Beyond Forgetting: Poems & Prose about Alzheimer’s Disease, by Kent State University Press in

Rebecca Garden, Ph.D.Associate Professor of Bioethics

and HumanitiesSUNY Upstate Medical

University

Amy Haddad, Ph.D., RNDr. C.C. and Mabel L. Criss

Endowed Chair in the Health Sciences

Program Director, Master of Science

in Health Care Ethics, Center for Health Policy

and EthicsCreighton University

David Hilfiker, M.D. Physician and Author

Holly J. HughesEditor of Beyond Forgetting:

Poetry & Prose about Alzheimer’s Disease

Rick Hyde, M.F.A.Professor Emeritus

of Theater, Hiram College

Tess Jones, Ph.D.Associate Director,

Center for Bioethics and Humanities

Director, Arts and Humanities

in Healthcare ProgramUniversity of Colorado

Anschutz Medical CampusEditor, Journal of

Medical Humanities

Reflections |


Jeff NiskerThe Center for Literature and Medicine at Hiram College has been essential to my learning, my research, my caring for patients, and my life. Ever since I met Carol Donley and Martin Kohn at an early Center workshop, I have felt part of a warm, even loving, family of researchers, scholars and caregivers. I want to congratulate the Center on winning the Cornerstone Award, but more importantly congratulate the many members of the Center’s community for their leadership in health humanities worldwide. It is

wonderful to see the names of friends and colleagues as they organize and take on important conferences, workshops, and leadership positions, all toward stimulating more compassionate health promotion and care through literature. The books and other writings of our Center’s family have contributed greatly worldwide to the understanding of how literature can indeed inspire better health promotion and care. I want to thank the Center for its continuing superlative work, and Carol and Marty for what they have done for all of us.

Poirier, SuzanneI was an early teacher in the seminars of the Center, but my admiration of Carol and

Marty both preceded and followed that participation. Singly, they were strong forces on behalf of literature and medicine from its earliest years, and together they became a touchstone in the careers and lives of many people. They not only nurtured those of us invited to teach in their seminars but also mentored countless participants with their wide interests and deep appreciation of everything that literature could bring to health care.

important collaborations and friendships that are among my most cherished, and in addition, the creative sparks from the conference directly helped to germinate two manuscripts on art and medical education that are among my most impactful to date: “Acts of Interpretation” and “Making Strange” (the latter coauthored with Delese Wear). I sincerely doubt that the ideas behind these publications would have taken off—and my professional network wouldn’t be as robust—if it weren’t for the Center at Hiram.Who would have thought that a few days at a small college in the Ohio countryside would have had such an effect? They did, and for that, I’m eternally grateful. Congratulations once again on the award!

Sandy MadarAfter arriving at Hiram in 1994, and spending my first year sending all my pre-med advisees into these wonderful interdisciplinary courses the likes of Uses and Abuses of Power in Healthcare and Narrative Bioethics, I became introduced to the gem that is the Center. By 1997, my colleague Dr. Fried and I approached Carol Donley about creating a new, and what became the first, Biomedical Humanities major, to capture the power of this emerging discipline. Our alumni narratives provide

powerful illustrations of the impact the Center has made on their professional careers and thus the countless lives they have touched. One student articulated it so well: “none of my science courses moved beyond showing me what I could do in medicine, toward thinking about whether we should do some of these things, and how few of us can access it.” As an anatomist and paleontologist by training, I would never have dreamed of using poetry and personal narratives to teach reproductive technology. But I can see no better way to spark new perspectives in undergraduates who are often so fortunate as to have limited experience in our health care system. I will be forever grateful that Carol and Marty taught this biologist the meaning of compassionate caregiving.

Betsy JulianoI attended Hiram’s Weekend College to achieve my B.A. in Humanities. Because I was working full time, the process took six years, and I graduated in 1984. A few years after graduation, I found that I missed deeply the academic environment and the life balance it provided. I contacted Carol Donley, who I knew and loved. Carol was one of my professors at Hiram, and someone who I quickly came to respect and admire. I told her how much I missed

her classes and the study of the Humanities. Carol responded in her inimitably kind way. She proposed that we do an “independent study” of sorts—we would read the same book and meet periodically to discuss it. This we did, and it was wonderful. During this time, she and Marty Kohn were founding the Mahan House and what became the Center for Literature and Medicine. I was privileged to participate in many discussions and events with Carol and Marty as they shaped the Center. The kindness and compassion that Carol exhibited in helping me, one former student, stay connected to Hiram is at the foundation of the Center. Their work has influenced a great many students and therefore a great many people beyond Hiram. I am grateful for their contribution to our society. Many congratulations to Carol and Marty for seeing their work rewarded with the Cornerstone Award at this year’s American Society for Bioethics and Humanities. It is well deserved.

Craig KlugmanMy introduction to the Center was through Carol Donley when we were both enrolled in the bioethics MA program at Case Western. As an anthropologist, I had never heard of the “medical humanities” or “literature and medicine” although the telling, creating, and analyzing of stories is at

the heart of both ways of knowing. Through class discussions and one-on-one conversations with Carol, I was introduced to this field that has become part of my life’s work. As a 26-year-old, I wasn’t sure what this medical humanities was: Could the study of stories of illness and healing really be a whole area of study or

was it an attempt to gain relevancy with other fields such as medicine and bioethics? Of course, that is part of the big question: What is this thing called the medical humanities? I even remember finishing up my MA and suddenly finding that anthropology alone did not teach me the skills I wanted to answer the applied existential questions which now occupied me. After I was admitted to the Ph.D. program at the IMH in Galveston, I had a conversation with Carol, wanting to be sure that studying a field that I barely even knew existed was a good direction for me. Although she was a faculty member and a Center Director, and I was only an almost-MA graduate, Carol treated me as a peer and helped me to answer my own questions. That connection with Carol and the Center has led me in recent years to working with Erin Lamb and Sarah Berry on baccalaureate health humanities education and on exploring what are the research methods of this growing field.

Arno Kumagai Congratulations to Hiram’s Center for Literature and Medicine on the ASBH’s Cornerstone Award! Well-deserved! My introduction to it in the summer of 2011 was truly career-altering for me. After having worked in the health humanities in virtual isolation for many years at my former institution, I attended Hiram’s On Healers and Healing conference in June 2011. (I recall finding out about the conference last-minute and getting registered only after a fair

amount of groveling and some friendly intervention by colleagues!). The conference attendance list read like a “who’s who” of health humanities—Marty Kohn, Delese Wear, Joe Zarconi, Tess Jones, Rebecca Garden, Catherine Belling, Jack Coulehan, Jay Baruch, Erin Lamb, Anne Hudson Jones, Gretchen Case, and others—but what was even more important for me was the sense of community, laughter, and inclusivity at the conference and the Center. I distinctly recall looking around during one of the sessions and saying to myself, “Wow! These are my peeps! I’m finally home!” The presentations and discussions were wonderful and incredibly generative for me. Within the few short days of the Hiram conference, I formed crucially


Betsy JulianoFounder and CEO

Litigation Management, Inc.

Craig Klugman, Ph.D.Professor, Department of Health Sciences

Co-Director, Minor in Bioethics & SocietyDePaul University

Arno K. Kumagai, M.D.Professor and Vice

Chair for Education,Department of Medicine

F.M. Hill Chair in Humanism Education, University of Toronto

Sandra I. Madar, Ph.D.Professor of Biology &

Biomedical HumanitiesDirector, Strategic

Academic InitiativesHiram College

Jeff Nisker M.D., Ph.D., FRCSC, FCAHS

Obstetrician and Gynecologist, London Health Sciences Centre

Professor of Obstetrics-Gynaecology at the Schulich

School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University

Scientist, Children’s Health Research Institute

Suzanne Poirier, Ph.D.Professor Emerita of Literature

and Medical EducationThe University of Illinois College

of Medicine, Chicago

Reflections |


Delese WearI attended the first NEH-funded fellowship program as a young academic just learning the field, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t appreciate what Marty and Carol had accomplished then and in subsequent Hiram summers. At this small college in northeast Ohio, they managed to bring together the real luminaries in bioethics and humanities, creating a training ground for a whole generation of medical humanities faculty and scholars. Most of us spend our travel dollars going to big city conferences in hotels with cavernous ballrooms and endless

lines at elevators. We manage these conferences by finding our small group of colleagues and friends and spending time with them. Hiram was the anti-conference in all ways possible. Because of the size and geography of Hiram College, anyone attending the fellowship and subsequent summer seminars became a member of a community that was together, dawn to dusk and beyond. Marty and Carol were responsible for this synergy of learning through what and how we studied and in every aspect of our time outside of the classroom. I’m sure I speak for every Hiram attendee who looks back fondly walking the “3-mile loop” in the afternoon when we continued our discussions and more, forging friendships and alliances that continued years after we left Hiram. I am forever grateful for those experiences.

Peter WhitehouseDuring my 30 years in North East Ohio at Case Western Reserve University, I have found the Center for Literature and Medicine a consistent source of inspiration and innovation that contributed instrumentally to my evolution as scholar and person, and to the cultural creativity of our community. A well-deserved award indeed.

we reside in one of the dorms, enjoy the communal spaces of Mahan House where we absorb all we can from notable pioneers in Literature and Medicine, and generally eat, sleep and breathe this emerging discipline and all the creativity it holds within. For this recovering nephrologist and newly-minted academic internist, my year engaged with the program at Hiram was truly a highlight of my adult life. It was sheer pleasure to learn from our remarkable faculty and my comrades in Lit-Med “crime;” my own instinctual sense that the arts (literary, visual and performing) belonged in health care education was validated and refined; and Carol and Martin always shone as remarkable role models for collaborative ideas and successful outcomes. I have attended several equally stimulating and challenging summer seminars at Hiram since. I know that my own work over the past 25 years (and probably that of many of my peers) has been shaped by experiences there. I salute the visionary leadership of Carol Donley and Martin Kohn in founding the Center for Literature and Medicine at Hiram in 1990, and I applaud all that the Center stands for today and into the future.

Sue StagnoThis award from the ASBH is a wonderful honor that acknowledges the labor of love that Carol and Marty have developed and nurtured for so long. These two are indeed mentors, leaders, and inspirations to all of us who love health humanities and the use of literature to teach in the caring professions. I feel so fortunate to have been able to participate in the Center’s summer institutes, to collaborate in teaching at Hiram (remember our “food”

class, Carol?) and to learn and grow in this area from Carol, Marty, and the wonderful program they built at Hiram. I know that the excellent programs the Center offered inspired me to continue to pursue this passion in my own work. I’m sure that I would not be teaching a Narrative Medicine course here at CWRU, or have been asked to lead the Humanities Pathway for our medical school had I not had the exposure and encouragement as well as the examples that Carol and Marty have been for excellence in teaching and passion for this work. They have been, and continue to be exemplars—as scholars, teachers and colleagues.

Joel PotashWe physicians need all the help we can get, not so much with the science of medicine, but with our humanity: our ability to understand the suffering of our patients, the role of their families and their cultures and our society in their health or illness. Fortunately, we have colleagues like Carol and Marty (and others they represent) who are invested in making us more competent and compassionate healers, through leading us to literature, the arts, and ethics, for example, at the small community of Hiram College. (I was just looking at my Hiram sweatshirt as the weather turned suddenly cold in western New York last night, more than a decade after my two brief

residencies at Hiram summer camp.) As teachers, they have done as much or more for us than our anatomy or pediatric professors, and probably more humbly. Would that there were a Carol and Marty at every medical school. Thank you and I miss seeing you. This honor is well deserved and too long delayed.

Audrey ShaferBirths are joyous with new life, heraldic with unknown futures, and messy with flowing juices. The birth of my daughter was all this, but also a confirmation: my future as an academic physician-scientist was doomed. My kids were teaching me what passion for, and devotion to, creativity were, and the pharmacology of anesthetics wasn’t it for me. By sheer luck I came across the journal Literature and Medicine, which led me to the Society for Health and Human Values Meeting in Memphis, Tennessee in the fall of 1992, including a parade of ducks in the Peabody Hotel. Everyone I met recommended a certain summer seminar. Hence in the summer of 1993 I made my first pilgrimage to the mecca in the cornfields, also known as the Center for Literature and Medicine at Hiram College, and attended the weeklong Narrative Bioethics seminar. I

stayed in a dorm, made friends, co-wrote a goofy music and tableau skit, and learned a helluva lot. I returned in summer 1996 for a repeat, seal-the-deal experience. The Center for Literature and Medicine at Hiram College birthed me into an academic career I cherish, enabling me to continue as an anesthesiologist, but providing the tools and map for a journey into health humanities.

I feel crazy fortunate that my midwives, the amazing Carol Donley, Martin Kohn, Delese Wear, Kathryn Montgomery, Therese Jones and so many more, guided my messy birth and further development with such love, patience, good cheer, and nurturance. I am forever grateful.

Ed SmerekIn January of 1985, I had just been appointed, with little experience, to the position of interim Vice-President of Academic Affairs at Hiram College. Shortly after my appointment, Carol Donley from our English Department requested that we meet with Marty Kohn

from NEOUCOM to discuss an idea for a program to start a Center for Literature and Medicine at the College. I immediately understood that a program like this would unite two of the most distinguished parts of the College, the humanities and sciences. The College had a long tradition of sending students on to medical school, many of whom were also active alumni, so the program appeared to be a natural fit for Hiram College. In addition, Carol was a successful faculty person both inside the classroom and as a scholar. Furthermore, she also had an established reputation as a collaborator with other scholars on many other projects. I saw Marty Kohn as a perfect collaborator in every respect to carry the Center to success with Carol. I attended many of their conferences as a guest and all their initial aspirations were evident in the responses and discussions of the participants. Carol and Marty were active in all these discussions and much more as their book series, for example, illustrates. The College is fortunate in being associated with such remarkable individuals and hosting a program that continues after many years to be an essential and vital part of the curriculum.

Rhonda Soricelli1991 – 1992: At the age of 44, I find myself one of 22 NEH-funded Fellows in Literature and Medicine at Hiram College. We are a motley crew—clinicians in medicine and nursing, PhDs in various disciplines, writers and poets, even a judge in healthcare law! Under the parental eyes of Carol Donley, PhD (English) and Martin Kohn, PhD (Education),

Joel Potash M.D. Professor Emeritus

of the Center for Bioethics and Humanities

Upstate Medical University, SUNY

Audrey Shafer, M.D.Professor, Anesthesiology,

Perioperative and Pain Medicine

Stanford University School of Medicine/VAPAHCS

Staff Anesthesiologist, Veterans Affairs Palo Alto

Health Care SystemDirector, Medicine & the

Muse, Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics

Ed Smerek, Ph.D.Professor Emeritus of

Mathematics, Hiram College

Susan Stagno, M.D.Professor of Psychiatry

and BioethicsCase Western Reserve

University School of Medicine

Delese Wear, Ph.D.Professor, Family and

Community Medicine Department

Northeast Ohio University of Medicine

Peter Whitehouse, M.D., Ph.D.

Professor of Neurology, Case Western Reserve University

Strategic Advisor in Innovation, Baycrest

Health Center Professor of Medicine and

Institute of Life Course and Aging, University of TorontoPresident, Intergenerational

Schools International

Rhonda Soricelli, M.D.Chair, Section on Medicine

and the Arts, The College of Physicians of Philadelphia

Reflections |


STAFF

In addition to the directors—especially Sandy Madar who has been key to the Center’s continuity—many thanks to the staff and faculty who have been instrumental to the operating of the Center, including: • Sarah Berry • Colin Campbell • Kristin Firth • Laura Gorretta• Rick Hyde • Brittany Jackson • Teddie Joeright

Erin Gentry Lamb, Director2014-Present

Previous Directors

1990-2006 Carol Donley and Martin Kohn

2006-2007 Lynn Underwood

2007-2009Colleen Fried and Sandy Madar

2009-2011Colleen Fried

2011-2013Michael Blackie and Erin Gentry Lamb

“Starting with little more than ideas and chutzpah, Carol and Marty created something magical through their collaboration.

Each successive director has added their vision and passion into the mix. It is my deep honor to continue to shape the Center’s legacy.”

Carol Donley Martin Kohn

Lynn Underwood Colleen Fried

Sandy Madar Michael Blackie

• Tess Jones• Kathy Luschek • Ed Smerek• Jay Thomas • Emily Waples• Delese Wear

Erin Gentry Lamb, Center Director

Center Staff |

Over the years, the Center has been blessed by the guidance and efforts of many wise and talented souls. Here’s a look at our Resource Council from the early days and today:

1992 Advisory BoardHoward Brody, M.D., Ph.D.Associate Professor, Family Practice and Medical Humanities, Michigan State University

Eric J. Cassell, M.D.Clinical Professor of Public Health, Cornell University Medical College

Robert Coles, M.D.Professor of Psychiatry and Medical Humanities, Harvard Medical School

Shattuck Hartwell, M.D.Director, I.H. Page Center for Creative Thinking in Medicine, Emeritus staff of the Cleveland Clinic

Eugene Hirsch, M.D.Associate Professor, Medicine and Nutrition, Case Western Reserve UniversityMember of the Board of Free Medical Clinics of Cleveland

Anne Hudson Jones, Ph.D.Professor of Literature and Medicine, Institute for the Medical Humanities, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston

Jonathan Miller, M.D.British Theatrical Director and Producer, BBC Shakespeare plays and medical documentaries

Lois Nixon, M.P.H., Ph.D.Associate Professor, Division of Medical Ethics and Humanities, University of South Florida College of Medicine

Richard Ratzan, M.D.Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Connecticut Health Center

Arnold Schuring, M.D.Warren Otologic Group

Therese Southgate, M.D.Senior Contributing Editor, Journal of the American Medical Association

Sandra Stephan, R.N., Ph.D.Associate Professor, Department of English, Youngstown State University

John Stone, M.D.Professor of Medicine and Community Health, Emory University College of Medicine

2017 Resource CouncilThomas W. Andrews, M.D. ’59Dermatologist (Retired), Hinsdale Dermatology

Kevin Barnett, ‘07Licensed Funeral Director and EmbalmerJoseph Gawler’s Sons, LLC

Donald L. Batisky, M.D. ’83Director, Pediatric Hypertension Program Professor of Pediatrics, Emory University School of MedicineExecutive Director, PreHealth Mentoring, Emory University College of Arts & SciencesPediatric Nephrologist, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta

Chad Berry, MA, MSSA, LSW, ‘10University Hospital Social Work, Adult Emergency Department

Jeanne Bryner, R.N.Registered Nurse and Poet, Trumbull Memorial Hospital

Sheryl L. Buckley, M.D. ’68Anesthesiologist (Retired), Founder and Director, Rockside Surgery Center of St. Vincent Charity Hospitals

Irene Chenowith, M.D. ’77Medical Director at Lexicomp, Internist with SUMMA Healthcare

Carol Donley, Ph.D. ’60Professor Emerita, English, Hiram College

Emily Drake, CFP, AEPPartner, Fairport Asset Management

Christopher Faiver, Ph.D. ’69Professor Emeritus, John Carroll University, Former Coordinator of the Clinical Mental Health Counseling Master’s Program at John Carroll University, Psychologist

Jeannie Flossie, LNHA, BA, LPN, ‘95Vice President, Alzheimer Programming Altercare of Ohio, Inc.

Leah Gongola, Ph.D.Assistant Professor of Special Education, Youngstown State UniversityDirector, Camp Sunshine of AuroraDirector, Proactive Behavior Services

Elizabeth (Lisa) Hesse, M.D. ‘05Program Manager, Disease Epidemiology Program, Army Public Health CenterEmail: [email protected]

Elizabeth Juliano ’84Founder and CEO, Litigation Management, Inc.

Martin Kohn, Ph.D.Director, Program in Medical Humanities Associate Professor of MedicineCleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine ofCase Western Reserve University

Joseph LaGuardiaLaGuardia Group, LLCCommunity Energy Advisors

Dixie Benshoff Ludick, Ph.D. ’72Licensed Psychologist, Educator, Trainer, Coach, Consultant

Jeffrey Nisker, M.D.; Ph.D.; FRCSC; FCAHSObstetrician and Gynecologist, London Health Sciences CentreProfessor of Obstetrics-Gynaecology at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western UniversityScientist, Children’s Health Research Institute

Delese Wear, Ph.D.Professor in the College of Medicine and in the Family and Community Medicine DepartmentNortheast Ohio University of Medicine

Joan Webster, M.D.Pediatrician, Oberlin and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Family and Community Medicine, Northeast Ohio University of Medicine

Joe Zarconi, M.D.Professor and Chair, Department of Internal MedicineClinical Director for Health Humanities EducationNortheast Ohio Medical University College of MedicineInterim Associate Dean for Health AffairsNortheast Ohio Medical University

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