Poetry and Medicine Conference: May 21-23 Duke

Spring is in the air when all good pilgrims make their way to conferences! Can you tell I have been teaching Canterbury Tales this year? I am looking forward to finishing teaching in April and moving onto conference season! And I am most excited about our upcoming… Poetry and Medicine Conference at Duke!  Life Lines: [...]

Reading this Thursday: McIntyre’s Book

I would love to see you at my reading this Thursday at 7:00 at McIntyre’s Books in Fearrington Village. I will be reading from When They Tell Me. I have the honor of reading with poet, Rhett Trull, editor of Cave Wall Poetry Magazine.

So You’ve been reading the blog, come hear the poems!

If you would like to hear some the poems that are companion pieces for the pieces on my blog, please come to one of my upcoming readings: October 17, 7:15pm West End Poetry Festival Carrboro Century Hall, 100 North Greensboro St, Carrboro, NC October 19, 10:30am–noon TEACCH Mothers’ Support Group: Journaling the Journey Chapel Hill [...]

Poetry and Medicine Conference

Okay, so I am straying away from my companion pieces to my poems, but there are so many exciting things brewing right now in the world of literature and medicine, that I have to step back into my present…or future as is the case here. Future as in next May 21st through 23, 2010. Mark [...]

Marcy Brenner of Dead Girl Walking: 10/09/09

In addition to writing, I direct the literary arts program for patients and staff at Duke.  Part of this program includes a discussion group each Friday. I wanted to let you know about our guest speaker this Friday and invite you to come: Breast cancer survivor, Marcy Brenner, will be at Duke Medical Center this [...]

Early Intervention II

All of the children in the group were challenged in some way, either through a physical handicap or through cognitive delays. But no matter the disability, these children still seemed to grasp the ideas of “play” and “group.”  The boy with cerebral palsy crawled across the floor for contact and was able to engage his [...]

Welcome to my Blog!

Greetings! On this blog you will find companion pieces to the poems in my last book of poems WhenThey Tell Me, as well as tips for families raising children with special needs and news about the literary arts and arts in health care.  When They Tell Me narrates my experience raising a daughter on the [...]

Early Intervention Playgroup I

As the months went by, my daughter’s issues added up. First the developmental delays to the failure to thrive to the speech delay.  In addition, there was the troubling fact that she showed no interest in toys or play and very little curiosity in the world around her. She was receiving therapies, but was there [...]

Mother’s Support Group at TEACCH

On October 19th, I will speaking to the Mother’s Support Group at the Chapel Hill TEACCH Center. I will read from my latest book of poems, When They Tell Me, which narrates my experience parenting a child with autism. I will also talk about how writing might help us deal with the challenges of supporting [...]

Her First Word II

For me the most disconcerting of the whole situation was my daughter’s speech delay. Muscle tone could be developed. One might work to forget trace amounts of methylmalonic acid, no matter how terrifying the first revelation. But who could ignore a child’s inability…stoic refusal…to speak? No amount of desperation in our voices phased her as [...]