Narrative Medicine Lunch & Learn
Spring 2025 Schedule
Narrative Medicine: Lunch & Learn is a monthly workshop – free and open to all WFU students, faculty, staff, and community members – that introduces participants to Narrative Medicine and its core principles of close reading and reflective writing. Sponsored by the WFU Humanities Institute’s Story, Health, & Healing Initiative, made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Facilitators: Aimee Mepham, MFA, Associate Director of the Wake Forest University Humanities Institute and Ethan Stonerook, PA-C, MPAS, Assistant Professor, WF School of Medicine, Department of PA Studies.
In-Person Sessions will take place from 12:00-1:15pm on the following Fridays at Wake Downtown. Room TBA.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR ONE OR ALL OF THE SESSIONS BELOW
January 17th
Viewing: Excerpt from Asteroid City (film by Wes Anderson)
February 21st
Reading: TBA
March 21st
Reading: TBA
April 18th
Reading: TBA
Online/Zoom Sessions will take place from 12:00-1:15pm on the following Thursdays:
(Click on the date to register for each individual Zoom session)
January 16th
Viewing: Excerpt from Asteroid City (film by Wes Anderson)
February 20th
Reading: TBA
March 20th
Reading: TBA
April 17th
Reading: TBA
Thursday, September 19th and Friday, September 20th
12:00-1:15pm
Reading: “Tiger House” by Ella Hormel from Smokelong Quarterly (flash fiction)
Thursday, October 17th and Friday, October 18th
12:00-1:15pm
Reading: “Maple Syrup” by Donald Hall (poem)
Thursday, November 21st and Friday, November 22nd
12:00-1:15pm
Viewing: “Nothing to Declare” by MGMT (song/music video/short film) Lyrics
Thursday, December 5th and Friday, December 6th
12:00-1:15pm
Readings: “Christmas Away From Home“ by Jane Kenyon and “Burning the Old Year” by Naomi Shihab Nye
Thursday, May 23rd and Friday, May 24th
12:00-1:15pm
Reading: “I’m rewatching the She-Ra episode where Glimmer gets sick for the first time” by Arianna Monet (poem)
Thursday, June 20th and Friday, June 21st
12:00-1:15pm
Reading: “Claude Monet, ‘The Artist’s Garden at Vetheuil,’ 1880” by Ciaran Carson (poem)
Thursday, July 18th and Friday, July 19th
12:00-1:15pm
Reading: “It’s About the Size of a Clenched Fist” by Richie Zaborowske from Brevity: A Journal of Concise Literary Nonfiction
Thursday, August 15th and Friday, August 16th
12:00-1:15pm
Readings: “From Blossoms” by Li-Young Lee and “Meditation on a Grapefruit” by Craig Arnold (poems)
Thursday, January 25th and Friday, January 26th
12:00-1:15pm
Reading for discussion is a piece of short fiction by Sara Hills called “Hey Lisa I Hope You Like” from Smokelong Quarterly (click title for link).
Thursday, February 22nd and Friday, February 23rd
12:00-1:15pm
The piece we will be discussing this month is the song “Anthem” by Leonard Cohen. Click here to listen. Click here to read the lyrics.
Thursday, March 21st and Friday, March 22nd
12:00-1:15pm
The reading for discussion is a short piece of creative nonfiction by Terri Kent called “My Father Becomes a Bird” from Brevity: A Journal of Concise Literary Nonfiction (click title for link).
Thursday, April 25th and Friday, April 26th
12:00-1:15pm
The reading for discussion is the poem “Beginnings” by Jacqueline Johnson (click title for link).
Wednesday, September 13th and Thursday, September 14th
12:00-1:15pm
Reading: “Strangers’ Doors” and “Everything. Alright.” by Sara Berkeley (poems)
Wednesday, October 11th and Thursday, October 12th
12:00-1:15pm
Readings: “What the Doctor Said” by Raymond Carver and “Echo (All She Lost She Lost)” by Leila Chatti (poems)
Wednesday, November 8th and Thursday, November 9th
12:00-1:15pm
Reading: “My Pain Doctor Asks What My Goals Are” by Allison Blevins (creative nonfiction)
Wednesday, December 6th and Thursday, December 7th
12:00-1:15pm
Reading: “A Conversation with My Father” by Grace Paley (fiction)
Wednesday, February 1st and Thursday, February 2nd
12:00-1:15pm
Reading: “The Base Note” by Meg Senuta (creative nonfiction)
Wednesday, March 1st and Thursday, March 2nd
12:00-1:15pm
Reading: “Casimir Pulaski Day” by Sufjan Stevens (song)
Click here to listen
Click here for lyrics
Wednesday, April 5th and Thursday, April 6th
12:00-1:15pm
Readings: “Graphic, In Case” by Vernita Hall and “Internet Support Group” by Chelsea B. DesAutels (poems)
Wednesday, May 3rd and Thursday, May 4th
12:00-1:15pm
Reading: “The Night Sky” by Adrienne Pilon (creative nonfiction)
Thursday, September 8th and Friday, September 9th
12:00-1:15pm
Readings: “Running the Scans Gauntlet” by Amy Haddad and “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid
Thursday, October 6th and Friday, October 7th
12:00-1:15pm
Readings: “The Clearing” by Jane Kenyon and “Clearing” by Christian Wiman
Thursday, November 3rd and Friday, November 4th
12:00-1:15pm
Reading: “How Daylight Saving Ends” by Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach
Thursday, December 1st and Friday, December 2nd
12:00-1:15pm
Reading: “Maggie Says There’s No Such Thing as Winter” by Janet McNally
Thursday, February 17th
12:00-1:15pm
Reading: “Medical Schools Have Historically Been Wrong on Race” by Damon Tweedy
Thursday, March 17th
12:00-1:15pm
Reading: “It Was Already Dangerous” by Lauren Whitehead
Thursday, April 21st
12:00-1:15pm
Reading: “What It Means When a Man Falls From the Sky” by Lesley Nneka Arimah
Thursday, May 19th
12:00-1:15pm
Readings/Viewings: “Her Marked Black Body” by Cynthia Parker-Ohene and “How Hair Changes Before Expiration” by J.E. Robinson (both read by Nkosi Nkululeko)
Wednesday, September 15th
12:00-1:15pm
Reading: “At the End of Life, a Secret” by Reginald Dwayne Betts
Wednesday, October 13th
12:00-1:15pm
Podcast: The Nocturnists: Black Voices in Healthcare: Episode 6: Becoming
Wednesday, November 10th
12:00-1:15pm
Reading: “The Old Baby” by Elizabeth Crowder
Wednesday, December 15th
12:00-1:15pm
Reading: “The Universe as Primal Scream” by Tracy K. Smith and “Coffee Break” by Kwame Dawes
Thursday, June 24th
12:00-1:15pm
Readings:
Poems: “After an Illness, Walking the Dog” by Jane Kenyon and “Emerald Spider Between Rose Thorns” by Dean Young
Thursday, July 29th
12:00-1:15pm
Reading: “On Witness and Respair: A Personal Tragedy Followed by Pandemic” by Jesmyn Ward
Thursday, August 19th
12:00-1:15pm
Reading: “Broken” by Ramya Sampath
Thursday, January 28th
12:00-1:15pm
Reading: “Poison” by Sarah Manguso
Thursday, February 25th
12:00-1:15pm
Reading: “A Gullah Woman Comes to Clinic” by Ethan Stonerook
Featuring a conversation with the author!
Thursday, March 25th
12:00-1:15pm
Reading: “Face Time” by Lorrie Moore
Thursday, April 29th
12:00-1:15pm
Reading: “Perhaps the World Ends Here” by Joy Harjo
Thursday, September 24th
12:00-1:15pm
Readings: “Try to Praise the Mutilated World” by Adam Zagajewski and “won’t you celebrate with me” by Lucille Clifton
Thursday, October 29th
12:00-1:15pm
Reading: “Numb” by Nikhil Barot
Thursday, December 3rd
12:00-1:15pm
Reading (audio recording): “Too Long, Too Short” by Jay Baruch
If you have any questions about Narrative Medicine Lunch & Learn, please contact Aimee Mepham, HI Associate Director, at mephamam@wfu.edu.