Pre-conference Workshops
Note: we are seeking permission to offer Continuing Education credit for these workshops, but at this time we cannot promise any. If you sign up for credit and we are unable to offer it, we will refund your credit fee.
Take Control of the Narrative: A Storytelling Workshop
Facilitator: Sheri Reda, MA MLIS
Health care professionals often pursue their personal and professional lives in relation to the lives of others who need them. Those circumstances contribute to the burnout that results from constant personal sublimation and professional extension of the self. To avoid or ameliorate the stresses of a career in which one is always on, healthcare professionals need ways to process their experience. Personal narrative, otherwise known as live lit, or adult storytelling, offers a way to record experience and mine it for meaning. This workshop offers basic instruction in the elements of narrative, along with tools for contextualizing experience to support a process of discovery. The emphasis of the workshop is on storytelling as a way of becoming comfortable with exploring and sharing the questions that connect us as human beings. Presentation tips will also be addressed.
Getting Published – A Workshop for Prose Writers
Facilitator: Carol Scott-Conner, MD
Writers of fiction and creative nonfiction – do you want to get your short pieces published in literary or medical humanities journals? Are you intrigued by contests sponsored by literary journals? Do you want to see your piece published in JAMA’s “A Piece of my Mind” or the humanities section of your own specialty journal? Or are you working on a book-length manuscript and considering how to get an agent? Wondering if you should self-publish your book? We’ll talk about these and other issues. Come prepared with your particular (or general) concerns; I will tailor the workshop to the needs of the attendees.
The Writers’ Group: A Vehicle for Growing Your Craft and Your Community
Facilitator: Kim Suhr, MFA, director, Red Oak Writing; facilitator, “The Moving Pens” at the Medical College of Wisconsin
As we recognize the value of narrative medicine and the power of writing communities, it only makes sense that we provide time and space for medical students, faculty and other professionals to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and receive feedback from their peers that both encourages and stretches the work.
In this pre-conference workshop, participants will explore various models for writers’ groups (and the logistics of starting/maintaining one), do some early draft and prompt writing, and receive feedback on their work in progress (optional). Those who are interested in starting a group will leave with a concrete plan and a supportive network of others with whom to continue the conversation.
Participants are invited to bring copies of up to 2,000 words of a work in progress for feedback. (When we have a complete roster, we will inform you how many copies to bring.)