This special double issue demonstrates the many ways in which aspects of the scientific world--from biology, medicine, physics, and astronomy--can be captured and dramatized for a humanities-oriented readership. In the tradition of Lewis Thomas, Stephen J. Gould, and Oliver Sachs, this powerful collection of essays captures an eclectic range of ideas combining literary style and intellectual substance. A View from the Divide includes essays written by poets, immunologists and physicists, established writers and up-and-coming new talent, including the winner of the Bayer Creative Science Writing Award for the best original essay about science, Alison Hawthorne Deming. In one essay a writer, threatened by blindness, discovers the power of pursue normal life through the Beethoven Fantasia. There is a discourse on the value of meteorites, a personal account of living with migraine headaches, an inside look at the fury of hurricane, a character study of Primo Levi, an essay by a successful attorney living with schizophrenia, and a meditation from a construction worker on the psychological intersection between fear and work.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction: Doctors and Writers - read it online
Lee Gutkind

Science and Poetry: A View from the Divide - read it online
Alison Hawthorne Deming

Astronomy 111: Grief and Memory
Carol Sanford

Earthquake Country
Susan Mann

The Moon on Ice
Scott A. Sanford

Solo - read it online
Susan L. Adkins

In the Dark
Geoffrey Alexander

With Enough Aspirin: Living for Now in Pain's Company
Luanne Armstrong

What They Don't Tell You About Hurricanes
Philip Gerard

The Lightning in My Eyes
Jean Hanson

Chimera
Gerald N. Callahan

Proud Flesh
Mara Gorman

Power
Susan L. Feldman

 Proud Science
Michael G. Stephens

On a Duet Sung Long After the Music Had Stopped
Laura S. Distelheim

The Lyapunov Exponent
James Glanz

A Well-Worn Hanky
Simon Pang

 Blur (The Interior of a Diagnosis)
Ruth Gila Berger

ONLINE RESOURCE:
• EXPLORING INTERIOR SPACES - An interview with Geoffrey Alexander, author of "In the Dark"
• RETHINKING LIFE - An interview with Luanne Armstrong, author of "With Enough Aspirin: Living For Now in Pain's Company"
• HIDDEN RAZORS - An interview with Ruth Gila Berger, author of "Blur (The Interior of a Diagnosis)"
• WHERE MEMORIES LINGER - An interview with Gerald Callahan, author of "Chimera"
• BALANCING ACT - An interview with Carol Sanford, author of "Astronomy 111: Grief and Memory"
• WHERE POETRY AND SCIENCE UNITE - An interview with Alison Hawthorne Deming, author of "Science and Poetry: A View from the Divide" * Winner of the Bayer Creative Nonfiction Science Writing Award
• TRANSCENDING THE ORDINARY - An interview with Laura S. Distelheim, author of "On a Duet, Sung Long After the Music Has Stopped"
• WHEN THE END INSPIRES THE BEGINNING - An interview with Susan Feldman,  author of "Power"
• FINDING PASSION IN FEAR AND DESTRUCTION - An interview with Philip Gerard, author of "What They Don't Tell You About Hurricanes"
• CREATIVE SCIENCE - An interview with James Glanz, author of "The Lyapunov Exponent"
• A FLY ON THE WALL - An interview with Mara Gorman, author of "Proud Flesh"
• MIGRAINE - An interview with Jean Hanson, author of "The Lightning in My Eyes"
• A TURNING POINT - An interview with Simon Pang, author of "A Well-Worn Hanky"
• KNOW THY AUDIENCE - An interview with Scott A. Sandford, author of "The Moon on Ice"