My first glimpse into the craft of physician-writers did not come through Anton Chekhov, Walker Percy, or William Carlos Williams, whose works I only came to after medical school. As a schoolboy, I loved W. Somerset Maugham, although he never practiced medicine, and his craft had little to do with his medical degree. My introduction to physicians as writers came through my textbooks. Boyd’s Pathology made me aware of literary voice, the ability of authors to place themselves in the text, let their personality come through, and subtly become a character in the reading experience. On the topic of defining the moment of death, Boyd in his single-author text wrote, “It was the author of the book of Ecclesiastes who said, ‘There is a time to be born, and a time to die.’ Fortunately it is the clinician, not the pathologist, who has to make this difficult decision. Sometimes, however, the kindly doctor may find himself murmuring those moving lines from the last act of King Lear: O let him pass! He hates him/That would upon the rack of this tough world/Stretch him out longer.”

In this essay, a young medical student describes her struggle with depression and how the experience of vulnerability has bred a deep compassion for her patients and peers.

In this narrative medical essay, an internist offers three basic lessons not taught in medical school that he learned about practicing medicine based on his experiences from a patient with whom he has built a trusting relationship over the years.

In this narrative medicine essay, a psychiatrist used her residency to avoid grieving the loss of her brother to suicide but through participation in a grief support group during training she began to thaw enough to remember her brother, watch videos of ephemeral moments like celebrating his fourth birthday, an act that allowed her to see him and her family again.

Cullen, Jim, 1962-

Holland, Geoffrey M, author

Logue, Jason, author

Riffe, Daniel

Vernallis, Carol

Berger, Arthur Asa, 1933-

Boczkowski, Pablo J

Devereux, Eoin, author

Australia. Parliament. House of Representatives. Standing Committee on Transport, Communications and Infrastructure

Long, Paul, 1967- author

Croteau, David, author

Flew, Terry, author

Vivian, John (John H.)

Meikle, Graham, 1965-

Hardy, Jonathan, 1963- author

Arnold, George T

Lipschultz, Jeremy Harris, 1958- author

Macnamara, Jim R

Macnamara, Jim R