Issue #33, 2007
Silence Kills: Speaking Out and Saving Lives
The essays collected in Silence Kills present a compelling, and often frightening, look at the lack of communication and understanding currently plaguing the American health care system.
These stories explore a wide and complicated range of experiences—a doctor is pressured into sending a patient home from the emergency room but later must face his decision when the patient suddenly dies; a physician deals with the doubt brought on by a malpractice lawsuit and must come to terms with the fact that even doctors are fallible and human; a woman fights for her mother’s mental health against a system eager to over-medicate the elderly; and more—but all share one thing: a frustration with a system that hinders communication and often leads to unnecessary suffering.
In this issue, we also introduce a new section in the journal, "Keeping It Real," with three new features: "Spotlight On...," "Ask an Editor," and "Notes on Craft." Silence Kills is also available as a hardcover book from SMU Press, with 2 additional essays, as well as in an unabridged MP3 CD format—please note that the book contains special essays not found in the journal issue.
Table of Contents
FROM THE EDITOR Lee Gutkind ... read more
Foreword: Toward a More Caring, and Curing, Health System Karen Wolk Feinstein
Introduction Abraham Verghese
The Good Doctor Helena Studer
Missing Merilee D. Karr ... read more
Mrs. Kelly Paul Austin
Non Pro Nobis John D. Bess ... read more
Saving My Breath Tamara Dean ... read more
Watching My Mother Hallucinate Diana Hume George ... read more
Foreign Bodies Grace Talusan
You Have the Right to Remain Silent Pamela Skjolsvik
See the Difference Sue William Silverman
In Praise of Osmosis Jill Drumm
KEEPING IT REAL: Thoughts about the Art, Craft, and Business of Writing Creative Nonfiction
Contributors
Paul Austin
Paul Austin has worked in emergency care for thirty years, first as a firefighter and now as a physician. His book about the way his job... read more
John D. Bess
John D. Bess received his MFA from the University of New Mexico, where he still teaches various writing courses. He is finishing his first... read more
Tamara Dean
Tamara Dean earned her MFA in Fiction Writing from Vermont College and writes fiction, essays, and technical books. Her creative nonfiction... read more
Jill Drumm
Jill Drumm is a poet and writer living in Fort Myers, Florida. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Florida International... read more
Karen Wolk Feinstein
Karen Wolk Feinstein, PhD is president and CEO of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation (JHF) and its two supporting organizations, the... read more
Diana Hume George
Diana Hume George is the author of The Lonely Other: A Woman Watching America, and author or editor of a number of other books of poetry,... read more
Meredith Hall
Meredith Hall's memoir, Without a Map, was recently published by Beacon Press in 2007. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The... read more
Merilee D. Karr
Merliee D. Karr is a health and science journalist, family physician, playwright, and dramaturge. She has published in the Journal of... read more
Karen Rosica
Karen Rosica is a psychoanalyst in private practice in Denver, Colorado. She has done interviews for New Letters on the Air: a literary... read more
Sue William Silverman
Sue William Silverman’s new memoir, The Pat Boone Fan Club: My Life as a White Anglo-Saxon Jew, is a finalist in Foreword Reviews... read more
Pamela Skjolsvik
Pamela Skjolsvik lives in southwest Colorado with her husband and their two children. "You Have the Right to Remain Silent" is her first... read more
Helena Studer
Helena Studer, a former assistant professor of pediatrics, no longer practices pediatrics. She is currently at work on a collection of... read more
Grace Talusan
Grace Talusan was following in the footsteps of her physician parents until her last premedical school requirement: Organic Chemistry II.... read more
Abraham Verghese
Abraham Verghese is the director of the Center for Medical Humanities and Ethics at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San... read more
Reviews
"Artful writing as well as the detailed reporting"
New Pages
February 23, 2008
Devoted to the theme “Silence Kills: Speaking Out and Saving Lives,” this issue proves editor Lee Gutkind’s premise... read more"Poignant"
Association of College and Research Libraries
March 2008
This compilation of life stories of people seeking treatment for illnesses accurately portrays the many aggravating factors that... read more