Dalhousie University offering writing workshop for cancer patients

Dalhousie University's medical school is offering a six-week free writing workshop for women who have gone through or are going through the cancer journey.

Carole Glasser Langille, an artist and writer in residence at the medical school, says writing and storytelling has healing power for patients.

"We have so much to learn from each other. We are all going to get ill and if we are lucky to live a long life, we are going to go through difficulties. So those who are dealing with that difficulty will tell us what that is like and share with each other these experiences," said Langille.

Langille is an accomplished poet whose book, I Am What I Am Because You Are What You Are, was recently nominated for the Alistair MacLeod Award for Short Fiction.

'Moving stories'

Last year, Langille held a writing workshop for inmates at the Central Nova Correctional Facility and says the experience was powerful.

"They would write these moving stories and the stories these inmates have to tell are remarkable."

In addition to the writing workshop, Langille is working on a large two-piece art installation at the medical school.

It's of a patient and a doctor and there will be a notebook by the exhibit that will say, "What a Patient says to the Doctor and What the Doctor says to the Patient."

Langille says she hopes the installation will make medical students think about the doctor-patient relationship.

The writing workshop begins April 19. Those interested in signing up can e-mail Langille at carolelangille2@gmail.com