In August 2022, the John P. McGovern Center for Humanities and Ethics will debut a new program for Writing Fellows designed to help health care professionals in the Houston area seeking an avenue to write memoirs or creative nonfiction and prepare them for publication.
Writing Fellows will explore what constitutes creative work and develop a writing practice they can maintain in the long run. Works of literary fiction, non-fiction, and poetry will aid the fellows in learning the methods and craft involved in creative works.
Writing Fellows will participate in one 3-hour long workshop per month from August 2022 through May 2023, in which they will discuss assigned readings, complete writing exercises, and engage in supportive and critical analyses of creative works from themselves and peers.
The Writing Fellowship is open to all health professionals in the Houston community, however only 14 spots are available. Those interested in becoming a McGovern Center Writing Fellow should send a brief note to course instructor Nathan Carlin, PhD, explaining why they are interested in taking the course. A writing sample or work-in-progress is optional, but strongly encouraged.
“We’d like to help these folks take steps in becoming writers,” Carlin said. “We’ve never done anything like that before, and I think it represents a new initiative in terms of community engagement. Most of our efforts have been directed internally, and this will be a major effort in engaging the Houston community, which I think nobody else is really doing in this way.”
Course instructors are Carlin, director of the McGovern Center and editor of Contemporary Physicians-Authors, and Pritha Bhattacharyya, MFA, fiction PhD candidate and Inprint C. Glenn Cambor Fellow in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Houston.
Course fees are $750, which includes books, dinner at each workshop session, and a special visit with a doctor-writer. Residents can receive a discounted rate of $500. If the writing fellows express interest, the McGovern Center will apply for Ethics CME Credit for participants.