THE COVID JOURNALS
Edited by Damian Tarnopolsky PhD and Shane Neilson MD, with a foreword by Allan Peterkin MD.
DISPATCHES FROM THE FRONT LINES
The coronavirus pandemic presents an unprecedented challenge on all levels of Canadian society. Essential workers on the so-called “front lines” are routinely cited as heroes in newsprint and online, on television broadcasts, and coffee shop signs because they risk developing a severe infection in the course of their daily work. But what is the cost of heroism, and what is it really like to work for the health care workers themselves? What has the actual experience been for doctors, nurses, EMS/ambulance professionals, respiratory technicians, dieticians, spiritual care workers and others in Canada? Has COVID taught us new lessons about self-care and caring for others? How have issues of power and privilege affected your own work and relationships with colleagues, patients and clients during this time?
ABOUT THE BOOK
We wish to learn of COVID stories of all kinds from all over the country to see whether creative and reflective writing by health professionals can help society see the pandemic differently.
TELL YOUR OWN STORY
We wish to learn of COVID stories of all kinds from all over the country to see whether creative and reflective writing by health professionals can help society see the pandemic differently.
The editors seek previously unpublished fiction, micro-fiction/flash, creative non-fiction, memoir, essay, poetry, comics/graphic medicine panels, photography, art, etc. for a collection tentatively scheduled for publication in fall 2021. We welcome contributions from practitioners in ANY health discipline, and particularly from historically and currently under-presented voices. We seek writing from residents of Canada or pieces that focus on the Canadian experience in particular.
Creative and reflective responses to any aspect of the pandemic are invited, from the experience of “front line” work, the nature of virtual appointments, the balance of home and work in the pandemic context, the role of story in the patient experience, narrative -based discussions of ethical questions raised by Coronavirus care, thoughts and hopes for what comes next. We are interested in work that communicates the practitioner’s lived experience with COVID 19 , and takes this opportunity to shape and understand the narrative of pandemic as it happens .
Authors must maintain the confidentiality of patients (if clinical encounters are discussed), also of colleagues and staff. Any creative work inspired by clinical experiences should be free of specific identifiers (e.g. particular places, dates, unique or identifying features, real names of practitioners and patients.)
SUBMIT
Please direct previously unpublished submissions (maximum 3000 words or 5 pages poetry/graphics) with a 100-word biographical note to:
by August 30th 2020
For more information , including contractual details, please contact the editors at: covidjournals1@gmail.com
ABOUT THE EDITORS
Damian Tarnopolsky PhD teaches creative and reflective writing and narrative medicine in the Health, Arts and Humanities Program at the University of Toronto. An acclaimed writer in many genres, his fiction has been nominated for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the Journey Prize, and his play The Defence won the 2019 Voaden Prize. His essays and articles have appeared in The Walrus, Reader’s Digest, Partisan Magazine, and elsewhere, and he recently served as a juror for the Toronto Book Awards. He runs Slingsby and Dixon, an editing company.
Shane Neilson is a disabled poet, physician, and critic who lives in Oakville, Ontario. He completed his PhD in English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University in 2018. His book, Dysphoria(PQL, 2017) was awarded the Hamilton Literary Award for Poetry in 2018. He is currently completing a postdoctoral position at McMaster supported by a $50,000 'Talent” grant awarded by SSHRC in 2018. Other good things to happen to Shane include receiving the Governor General’s Gold Medal for his dissertation work in disability studies and the Regional Dean’s Award for Excellence in Medical Education which was also bestowed for Shane’s championing of disability in McMaster’s medical faculty. He is the festival director of the AbleHamilton Poetry Festival which just successfully completed its second run. Finally, he is also the Poetry Advisor for the Canadian Medical Association Journalwhere he actively works to include poems by disabled writers. His poems appeared in Poetry Magazinein April of this year. Work from his latest book, New Brunswick, has appeared on Verse Daily.
Contributing a foreword to the Covid Journals is Allan Peterkin MD, a Professor of Psychiatry and Family Medicine at the University of Toronto, where he heads The Program In Health, Arts and Humanities (www.health-humanities.com). He is the author/editor of 14 books on medical humanities, narrative medicine, physician health, cultural history and human sexuality. Over 20 years, Dr Peterkin co-led a therapeutic writing group for men and women living with HIV, with occupational therapist, Julie Hann. This work resulted in an acclaimed collection of patient narratives called " STILL HERE-A POST-COCKTAIL AIDS ANTHOLOGY."
PARTNERS
The Covid Journals is Supported by
HEALTH ARTS RESEARCH CENTRE
University of Northern British Columbia
WATERLOO REGIONAL CAMPUS
McMaster University MD Program
DEPARTMENT OF FAMILY MEDICINE
McMaster University
SCOPE: THE HEALTH HUMANITIES RESEARCH LAB
University of Toronto Scarborough