Issue 12 is here!
The Examined Life Journal is a literary publication of The University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine published annually.
The Journal is a forum devoted to literary prose and poetry which intends to deepen and complicate our understanding of healthcare, healing, illness, the human body, and the human condition. Working at the intersection of science, medicine, policy, and the literary arts, The Examined Life recognizes that the practice of medicine and the practice of being a patient are filled with ambiguity and contradiction and that each medical encounter is fundamentally a human encounter.
In This Issue
POETRY
1 AKAS SIDDIQUI Commotio Cordis
15 LIANA ESKOLA How It Feels to Know That Someday Everything
About You Will be Obliterated
25 D.R. JAMES Ugly Ducking
39 JENNIFER CHRISTGAU-AQUINO Mother Nature
65 CHIKE NZERUE Flaco’s New York Spirit, Tonight
75 JAMES GIRARDY irony
93 EMMA WALSH First Honor Walk
99 LINDA DRACH Hysterical Strength
111 ANNIKA BRAKEBILL Sestina for a Patient Who Lives Rent Free in My Mind
119 ANNIE ALBRIGHT The Color of Lasix
127 PRISCA MBONU “i woke up yellow”
143 DIANNE SILVESTRI Next Patient
151 WILLA SCHNEBERG Naming
165 RICHARD BRONSON Third Opinion
173 JEFFREY JOHNSON Good Dog Too
177 KATHRYN TEMPLE The Slow Progressor
193 LORI LEVY How I Talk to You Now
207 PRAMOD LAD Hospice
FICTION
101 JANE SHERWIN A Positive Attitude
145 JENNIFER HANDY Trust
167 ALEC FEUERBACH What They Don’t Tell You About the End
175 DIANE GOTTLIEB Perspective
179 JON SHORR Dispensation of Cult from the Impediment
195 DAVID K. SLAY The Last Time
NONFICTION
3 ANNE JACOBSON Gray Matter
17 LISA PARK The Science of Bubbles
27 HARRIET SQUIER What Photographs Tell Me
31 HEATHER DURHAM Survivor
41 JUDITH HANNAH WEISS Not Screwed-Up Enough
51 NANCY GLASS A Long Way From Home
67 LINA ADWER Bias, Misdiagnosis, and My Journey Beyond
the Refugee Status
71 DORIANE MILLER Crossroads of America
77 ANNE JACOBSON On Calling
89 LAURA GARRISON That Is Just What Nurses Do
95 KATHERINE L. HESTER The Etymology of Care
113 ANNE GLASER The Big Leg
121 JANNIE EDWARDS The Desiring Soul: The Liver and the
Writing Life
129 KAT JOPLIN How to Be a Super-Duper Hospital Patient in Japan
153 KATHRYN GAHL The Timing Belt
CAROL BOWMAN CREATIVE WRITING CONTEST FOR MEDICAL STUDENTS WINNERS
211 JACKSON DUNNING Speechless (NONFICTION)
219 WILLIAM MOODY The Well (NONFICTION)
223 STEIN ACKER Misting Syndrome (FICTION)