Steve Langan didn’t know what he was getting into.
When it began, the Seven Doctors Project was a bit of a lark – pairing UNMC medical professionals with Omaha-area writers to see what kind of creative projects the teams would produce.
As Langan originally conceived it, the project was an eight-week seminar, a chance to see what happened when you put hard-science minds together with humanities minds.
It was, in fact, part of Langan’s Ph.D. project.
“I wanted to see what would happen when mid-career physicians, perhaps facing burnout, joined,” he said, envisioning the project as a “jolt to the imagination.”
And then?
“People wanted to do it again,” Langan said.
Five years and seven more groups later, the project has achieved a level of success that Langan wasn’t considering when the group started.
Read World-Herald coverage of the project here.
That “jolt to the imagination” worked so well that Bud Shaw, M.D., surgery, won a major award from the respected journal Creative Nonfiction, while Lydia Kang, M.D., internal medicine – general medicine, will have her first young adult novel published in December.
Interested in joining the Seven Doctors Project? Contact Steve Langan.
Meanwhile, Langan is seeking interested physicians to participate in the next eight to 10-week program. As it enters its sixth year, the Seven Doctors Project is now a program of the Nebraska Writers Collective and is open to health care providers throughout the city. Bruce Buehler, M.D., is serving as chair of the group’s development committee.
More about the Seven Doctors Project, including ways to support the program.
On May 20, participants and faculty of the eighth iteration of the Seven Doctors Project will read poems, stories and essays. Readings begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Slowdown, 729 N. 14th St.
Readings will be given by Langan and Drs. Shaw and Kang, as well as: Lindsey Baker; Nancy Camras; Grace Davis, M.D., internal medicine – general medicine; Steve Dondlinger; James Harper, M.D., pediatrics hematology/oncology; Andy Jameton, Ph.D., College of Public Health; Ben Johnson; Suzanne Kehm; Gilles Monif, M.D.; Todd Robinson; Amanda Swanson; and Charlie Youngblood, M.D.
The reading is a fundraiser for the Seven Doctors Project program at the Nebraska Writers Collective. Freewill donations, which are tax-deductible, will be accepted.
I participated in the 7DP in 2012 and enjoyed every minute! I had never written poetry before and now I am hooked. I was even inspired to attend the Examined Life: Writing and the Art of Medicine Conference at the University of Iowa. If you are at all interested in writing or learning to write – sign up!