The Write Treatment

In this month’s Poets & Writers Magazine there is a terrific article by the novelist Emily Rubin about writing and cancer. Rubin is the author of the novel, “Stalina” (Mariner Books, 2011) and she has also published many of her short stories in Confrontation and The red Rock Review.

In the P&W Magazine Rubin writes about her experience with cancer and her decision after her own treatment had ended to give back to her cancer community by offering writing workshops at Beth Israel Medical Center in new York City.

She started small, supported by the hospitals social work department, and developed a simple curriculum that allows patients and their cancer caregivers to attend and do writing practice. Rubin writes that, “I encourage participants to write about anything they choose and I hope the workshop can be a place to take a moment away from waiting rooms and procedures.”

Participants in the Beth Israel writing workshop work on fiction, poetry, biography or fantasy stories.

Writing and art are curative and they can also be –or facilitate—spiritual practices.