Suzanne Edison, MA, MFA

Poet • Educator

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Poem published in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association)

 

I am happy to announce the publication of my poem, Still Life Without Skull on April 17, 2018 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

While writing about the experiences my child and I have gone through is painful at times, I fundamentally believe that by trying to capture those moments, feelings and events in writing. I find an order from the chaos they brought.  And I hope that these words might reach others who’ve gone through similar experiences, thereby making a connection and helping them feel less alone.

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The Effects of Misdirection

My daughter was diagnosed in 2007 with a rare autoimmune disease, Juvenile Myositis (JM). Since then I’ve been writing poetry about my journey, teaching writing workshops for parents and teens who live with, or care for others, living with autoimmune diseases, and working with a national foundation that supports research and awareness for JM.

Over the past few years I have received artist grants to interview parents of kids with a variety of autoimmune diseases and I wrote a book of poems based on those conversations. This led to the publication of my chapbook, The Moth Eaten World, Finishing Line Press, 2014.

Now, I am embarking on The Effects of Misdirection: a poetry and visual art project on the psychosocial, scientific and medical aspects of autoimmune diseases that I dreamed up a couple of years ago. I have received grants from 4Culture; City Artists: Office of Arts and Culture, Seattle; and Artist Trust to pursue this project.

In my work supporting Seattle Children’s Hospital (SCH) Rheumatology Department and as a board member of the Cure JM Foundation, I was fortunate to meet a forward thinking scientist and doctor, Jane Buckner, who is the Executive Director of the Benaroya Research Institute (BRI) in Seattle, Washington. BRI’s mission is to find the causes and cures of autoimmune diseases, including diabetes, multiple sclerosis, allergies, and rheumatoid arthritis, to name a few of the 80 diseases. Dr. Buckner became excited about this project and subsequently I am partnering with BRI to bring this project to fruition.

I have conducted 28 interviews of scientists, doctors / nurses, patients (both adult and teens) and their caretakers/parents. Currently, I am writing poems, organizing artwork for the final publication of a poetry and art book, and setting up reading venues for the fall. The books will be available in clinics and hospitals locally that see patients with autoimmune diseases and the readings will be free and open to the public. For more information and to be put on a mailing list for notification of the readings, please contact me.

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The Words to Say It: Writing about Illness, Trauma and Healing

I want to let you know about a 5 week course I’ll be teaching this Fall at Richard Hugo House in Seattle.

The Words to Say It: Writing about Illness, Trauma and Healing.

Course Description:
By focusing on the craft of writing we can transform personal experience into art. Readings will include excerpts from: Poetry in Medicine; The Healing Art: A Doctor’s Black Bag of Poetry; Poetry as Survival; Beauty is a Verb, and writers Alicia Ostriker, Lucia Perillo, Susan Sontag, Lucille Clifton, Anatole Broyard, and Kevin Young, among many others.

The course will be both poetry and creative non-fiction oriented. You may write in whatever form you want.

We will look at forms, how specific forms of elegy, narrative, the lyric and prose help hold and extend the language/story.
We will stretch our language capacities, looking past cliche to surprising images.
We will look at negative and positive space, e.g. what is and is not “on the page”, engaging the reader in active imagination.

Each week we will read, discuss and write. In the last class students may bring a piece of their own to workshop for feedback.

DATES: Saturdays 9/23, 9/30 (note, we will skip 10/7 as I have a prior commitment), 10/14, 10/21, 10/28.
TIME: 10 am – 12 pm
LOCATION: Hugo House, 1021 Columbia St, Seattle, WA 98104

Important dates as you spread the word:

Member Registration – Aug. 15
General Registration – Aug. 22
Scholarship Applications Due – Aug. 25
Early Bird Pricing Ends – Aug. 28

Register here.

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The Effects of Misdirection: When the Immune System is Led Astray

I’m very excited to announce that 4Culture of King County Washington, a cultural arts program, has awarded me a grant to pursue this poetry / art / interview / writing project.  I have the great, good fortune to be partnering with the Benaroya Research Institute in this endeavor.

I am posting a project description, here, and I will make updates on the project as it moves along.