The physician-poet William Carlos Williams knew that words had a place in healing, once writing, "It is difficult / to get the news from poems / yet men die miserably every day / for lack / of what is found there." What role does poetry have in the lives of physicians, scientists, patients, and caregivers?

To explore this question, BLR presents "How Words Can Heal," an event that brings together diverse perspectives at this intersection of arts and sciences. Join Jenny Qi, Ph.D., former cancer biologist and author of the award-winning debut poetry collection Focal Point; physician-poet Dr. David Watts, author of Having and Keeping; poet and translator Patrick Donnelly, author of Little-Known Operas; and "rural hip-hop blues" poet Saleem Hue Penny, winner of BLR's 2021 Vilcek Prize for Poetry. The panelists will read a selection of their poems and discuss the convergence of poetry and medicine in their work and lives. The event will be moderated by BLR Poetry Editor and author of Devil's Lake Sarah M. Sala.

Read more about BLR and find copies of the journal at BLReview.org.

Jenny Qi is the author of Focal Point, winner of the 2020 Steel Toe Books Poetry Award. Her essays and poems have been published in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Tin House, ZYZZYVA, Rattle, and elsewhere, and she has received fellowships and support from Tin House, Omnidawn, Kearny Street Workshop, and the San Francisco Writers Grotto. Born in Pennsylvania to Chinese immigrants, she grew up mostly in Las Vegas and Nashville and now lives in San Francisco, where she completed her Ph.D. in Cancer Biology. She is working on more essays and poems and translating her late mother's memoirs of the Chinese Cultural Revolution and immigration to the U.S.

David Watts has literary credits that include seven books of poetry, three collections of short stories, two mystery novels, seven western novels, a Christmas memoir, and several essays. He is a physician, formally trained musician and past Radio/TV personality. His invited haiku collection, Dream Tree, was just published. He lectures widely on the value of humanities in healing.

Patrick Donnelly is the author of four books of poetry, most recently Little-Known Operas (Four Way Books). He is director of the Poetry Seminar at The Frost Place, Robert Frost's old homestead in Franconia, NH, and he was a recipient of a 2015-2016 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature.

Saleem Hue Penny is a Black "rural hip-hop blues'' poet, arts educator, and mutual aid advocate with Lowcountry roots, single-sided deafness, and Ramsay Hunt Syndrome. The 2021 Poetry Coalition Fellow at Zoeglossia, an Assistant Poetry Editor at Bellevue Literary Review, and a proud Cave Canem Fellow, Saleem's writing explores how young people of color traverse wild spaces and define freedom on their own terms. He often punctuates his poetry with drum loops, gouache, and birch bark.

Sarah M. Sala is a queer poet of Polish-Lebanese descent. Her debut collection, Devil's Lake (Tolsun 2020) was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award, a Publishing Triangle Award, and an Eric Hoffer Provocateur Award. She is the founder of the free poetry workshop, Office Hours, and Poetry Editor at the Bellevue Literary Review. Sarah is a clinical associate professor in the expository writing program at New York University. Her work appears in BOMB, the Southampton Review, and the Los Angeles Review.