Center for Bioethics and Humanities

The Healing Muse is the annual journal of literary and visual art published by SUNY Upstate Medical University's Center for Bioethics & Humanities. We welcome fiction, poetry, narratives, essays, memoirs and visual art, particularly but not exclusively focusing on themes of medicine, illness, disability and healing.

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Poetry Month with Two-Bit Poetry from us!

In celebration of National Poetry Month, The Healing Muse installed a poetry gumball machine on the 9th floor of Weiskotten Hall on the Upstate Medical University campus for the month of April. A mere quarter gets you a poem from a recent issue of The Healing Muse.

The journal, entering its 13th year, features writing from Upstate’s students, faculty, and staff, as well as both national and international writers. All proceeds will go to support Upstate's annual Dearing Writing Award for students.

A limerick from our poet friend Bruce Bennett from Wells College celebrates this effort:

A gumball machine? Something new!
A quarter per poem, just for you.
It’s pretty darn neat:
it comes as a treat
that you can chew over, not chew.

SUNY Upstate Medical University's HealthLink On Air
Sundays on WSYR (570AM) at 9 am

Latest interviews with Linda Cohen and Dr. Deirdre Neilen, Editor of The Healing Muse

December 2012

In this month's interview Dr. Neilen talks about the cover artist Marguerite McDonald, her struggle with Multiple Sclerosis, and reads Mary Lou DiPietro's poem "Acceptance." To listen to the interview, press here.

November 2012

Dr. Neilen shares the latest issue of the Muse. She reads poetry by Valerie Wohlfeld, "I Made a Vessel," "Snow on the Brain," by Marylou DiPietro, and excerpts from Kevin Bray's non-fiction essay "It's All in My Head." To listen to the interview, press here.

Visit our Muse Media webpage for more interviews and videos.

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The Healing Muse 12

Excerpts from the Editor's Note page:

I am always struck by the courage of our writers and artists. They have been confronted by a diagnosis, perhaps, or a test result confirming a suspicion they hoped to elude. Sometimes it is the nurse or physician who writes about the internal cost of giving such bad news; sometimes it is the patient or a family member who describes how those words transform the habits and patterns of what used to be an ordinary life.

In the act of writing or painting, in the act of caring and creating, people wrest back these altered lives. Illness may change how life is negotiated, but as these stories and poems and pictures attest, it does not change people’s need to be heard, to be loved and to love. The human spirit struggles and continues a forward motion. The land ahead may be unfamiliar territory, but the same humor, resilience, and desire propel our poets and essayists and their characters to chance the unknown and to chart the journey for us.

Deirdre Neilen, Editor-in-Chief
Volume 12, No. 1 (Fall) 2012

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Our 11th Issue is now an Ebook!

See Order Copies webpage for more information.

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The Healing Muse, Upstate’s journal of literary and visual arts, celebrated its twelfth anniversary publication launch on October 24, 2012. Many of the local writers and visual artists from our 12th issue attended, read, and shared their stories with us.

Back row: David C. Manfredi, Kathleen Kramer, Emily Weston, Bruce Bennett, Joan Applebaum, Dorothy Money, David Haughey, Deborah Diedmont Front row: Joyce Holmes McAllister, Tish Pearlman, Kaitlin Provost, Yolanda Tooley, Mary Gardner, Karen Kozicki, Judith Lavelle, Gena Buza

Our cover artist Marguerite McDonald sent us an interview which we played at the beginning of our publication launch. To watch her interview click here.

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