Welcome
October 10, 2022
Dear Friend,
Sunflower, by Priyangi Malaviarachchi
Welcome to the Summer/Fall 2022 issue of Medicine and Meaning. This is our sixth issue and we continue to grow in quantity and quality of submissions. We had more than 100 short story and poetry submissions for this issue, of which our editors chose the ones most closely allied to health and healing and/or healthcare settings. As always, we had submissions from a wide range of people, including students, staff, faculty, and friends of UAMS from around the world.
In the Conversations section of this issue, we feature an interview by two of our medical students with Dr. Jerrilyn Jones, who trained at Harvard Medical School, served in the military, and now works as an Emergency Room attending physician. Read how she does all this as she balances her work with her personal life as mother of three and wife of a political candidate in the upcoming elections.
Move on to the Fiction section where we feature adventure and other stories. One adventure takes place In the Greek islands where tragedy occurs and is redeemed. Move then to another adventure in Tanzania describing the local people, zebras and flamingos, and alas mosquitoes and malaria. See how the author saved the entire experience in her mind and in her photos, thereby making, keeping, and sharing memories for a life time.
In another story we travel into the life of a man with a neurological condition who finds wholeness and healing in rolling coins. Another story deals with medical ethics by presenting a quandary in which a fictional physician sacrifices all for his principles. Finally we travel into the life of a young woman who suffers a terrible loss during the COVID epidemic, but is redeemed by love.
For Nonfiction, we present stories from our medical students on the power of perseverance, the impact of loneliness, and the need for male health care providers to understand women’s childbearing experiences. We also feature a physician’s personal and professional account of epinephrine and another story on struggling through prejudice of being in an interracial marriage.
In the flash fiction 55-Word Story section, we present four stories. One is about a cancer patient and cancer doctor transforming from strangers to soul mates towards a common goal, the power of one to make a difference even in climate change, impact of dealing with death and dying in a hospital setting, and a Halloween-like story of a drafty old house.
Our Poetry section comprises 26 poems covering the entire gamut of life, including love, death and dying, saying goodbye, impact of COVID, summer ash, code blues, and much more. The section opens with “The Beloved Leaves Without Goodbye”, an elegiac piece from Arkansas Poet Laureate Suzanne Underwood Rhodes.
In our Images section you’ll find photographs of a jellyfish, a sunflower, and a bird perched on a parking sign in Two Rivers Park.
Please email us at medicineandmeaning@uams.edu and tell us what you like and what you don’t like. Also, please send us your best stories, poems, and images for our next issue in April 2023.
Please sign up for our mailing list via the form on the front page of this website to be notified when we release new issues. We don’t want you to miss any of the art that we are privileged to share.
In the meantime, enjoy this issue!
Paulette Mehta, Editor-in-Chief
Bill Ventres, Conversations Editor
Metu Osele, Fiction Editor
Eric Moorehead, Non-Fiction Editor
Alan Sherman, Flash Fiction Editor
Chris Fettes, Poetry Editor
Diane Jarrett, Images Editor
Chris Lesher, Web Editor