Highlights since my last update:
Teaching – This past spring term I taught a fantastic new Graphic Medicine course at the University of Illinois in Chicago’s Biomedical Visualization program to five talented students. Here’s a sample research translation and advocacy comic featured on the Graphic Medicine website. If you are interested in the details, email me for the syllabus link.
Travel – Our 2024 GMIC Conference took place in Athlone, Ireland, hosted by Jane Burns and her team at Technical University of the Shannon. A full report with photos linked below.
And New York City for the Association of Health Care Journalists conference in June. It was enlightening to spend time with journalists. I so respect their tenacity, their intelligence, curiosity, and their struggles. Much interest in Graphic Medicine among them! Grateful for the opportunity and support. And finally got to meet the generous, kind, and talented Josh Neufeld. Also managed to visit Kinokuniya and see three Tony-winning plays: Suffs, Merrily We Roll Along, and Enemy of the People.
Publishing – a few updates
- Ebru Ustundag, Shelley Wall, Dana Walrath, and I co-authored book chapter on Graphic Medicine’s Drawing Together sessions in Drawing in Health and Wellbeing. Release date May 2025, preorders available now.
- Caitlin Nye and I co-authored a book chapter on Nursing & Graphic Medicine in Interdisciplinary Graphic Medicine. I also created an original comic for the Bioethics chapter.
- A journalist I met at the above conference was kind enough to pitch a story to the American Journal of Nursing about my work in graphic medicine. Unfortunately it’s currently behind a paywall, but if you have access, you can see it here.
- I was interviewed for a story about our conference in the Irish Times. Story here.
- Serving as the inaugural comics editor for Literature & Medicine is a great adventure. I feel like I get to do the thing I enjoy most: connecting great work to great opportunity. The latest issue features a terrific comic by Nathan Gray about being present with dying.
I’ll never forget the first time I witnessed a peaceful last breath. #Palliativecare is about life, not death, but caring for patients in those final moments of life is a tremendous privilege. A reflection I drew for @literature_med (1/3)#graphicmedicinehttps://t.co/ExqTyLFRoW pic.twitter.com/VKfsIugnZy
— Nathan Gray MD, FACP (@NathanAGray) August 30, 2024
More teaching – Working this summer with Gianna Pinagua (@tragicdarling on Insta) on her capstone project for the Narrative Medicine program at Columbia has been an honor. We were able to incorporate work for the Ireland conference as part of our time together. Can’t wait for her capstone project to be available to patients and families. It’s the best of graphic medicine: amplifying the experiences of patients and families as authorities in their own care, as well as advising, advocating for and mentoring similarly situated others. You can see some of her newer work in Bonus Days Magazine. As a starting point, here‘s a comic Gianna did prior to receiving her second heart transplant – during COVID lockdown. Click on the image below for the full comic on her website.
Endings – In August my term on the Graphic Medicine International Collective board of directors came to a close. We’ve been an official board since 2019, but I’ve been working closely with most of these colleagues since the first Graphic Medicine conference in London, 2010. So it’s personally a big deal. I feel strongly that as founders of graphic medicine we should step back so the movement continues to evolve in a sustainable way, but be available if needed. In honor of my departure, the board posted a lovely tribute on our site and social media. I’m currently absorbing the appreciation as I reflect on this era of my work, the opportunities it has afforded me, the warm friendships & community we’ve created along the way, and my next steps. Click on the link below to read their kind tribute.
What I’m working on now:
A long form comic for the first Laydeez do Comics Online Comics Fair. This project will be self published and available July, 2025.
My next book – currently thinking of as “an autoethnography of moral development” but hopefully funnier and more useful than that sounds.
Not teaching or lecturing for most of 2025! Taking this break to focus on my own projects.
What I’m reading now:
Fiction summer included Ann Patchett’s Tom Lake for my library’s book group and two Benjamin Black mysteries recommended by friends since I was going to Ireland.
Three wide-ranging educational books by Margreet deHeer whose work I really love. It was a thrill to meet and fangirl at her in Ireland. Check out this terrific comic she did about that conference.
Sarah Leavitt’s new book, Something, Not Nothing. It’s a breathtakingly beautiful visual meditation on grief and survival.
What I’m listening to:
In heavy rotation right now are Passenger, Chappell Roan, Noah Kahan, John Prine, and P!nk, especially the DNC performance with her daughter Willow.
Current obsessions:
- Rock tumbling. If you’d like to follow along, check out my Instagram.
- Learning to play guitar. I’ve found I’m more interested in learning melody lines and notes than just chords. This is going to be a long process, but it’s been a lifelong goal to play guitar and at 57 I decided if not now, when?