A special author reading presented by McGoogan Library
Writing What We Witness as Clinicians and Patients
Date: October 21, 2026
Time: 12 to 1 p.m.
Location: MSC 2018 or via Zoom
Presented by: Dr. Amy Haddad, Professor Emerita in the School of Pharmacy and Health Professions at Creighton University
Writers who are also health care professionals and patients often draw from personal and clinical experiences. Turning observation and emotion into authentic writing can be complicated. Dr. Haddad, who is a nurse, patient and writer, will consider the ways her creative work gives voice to these roles as well as how health experiences shape content, insights and setting. Writing can be a way to work through complicated feelings brought on by traumatic events and diagnoses. She will read her poems and examine how an observation or experience makes it to the page in the form of verse. Participants will have an opportunity to reflect on and write some poetry.
Enter the drawing to receive a signed copy of The Most Potent Weapon. Copies will also be available for purchase and signing by Dr. Haddad at the in-person event. Cost is $10.
To attend the lecture via Zoom, please register here.
Attend in person: MSC 2018
Dr. Amy Haddad Biography
Amy Haddad, PhD, MSN, MFA, FAAN, has educated nurses and pharmacists at Creighton University since 1988 where she also held the Dr. C.C. and Mabel L. Criss Endowed Chair in the Health Sciences. In addition, Amy served as Director of the Center for Health Policy and Ethics at Creighton from 2005-2018 and now holds the rank of Professor Emerita. She was selected in 2001 to be part of the Pew National Fellowship Program for Carnegie Scholars, studying the impact of patient simulations on health professional learning. She has also been a pioneer in the use of poetry, creative prose and narrative writing as approaches to teaching healthcare ethics.
Amy is the 2019 recipient of the Annals of Internal Medicine poetry prize for “Families Like This” for the best poem published in the journal. She won third place for the 2019 Kalanithi Writing Awards from Stanford University for her poem “Dark Rides.” Her chapbook, The Geography of Kitchens, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2021. Her first poetry collection, An Otherwise Healthy Woman, was published by Backwaters Press, an imprint of the University of Nebraska Press, in early 2022. An Otherwise Healthy Woman was awarded twice in the 2022 AJN Book of the Year Awards: first place in the Creative Works Category and second place in the Professional Issues Category. In 2025, her second chapbook, The Most Potent Weapon, was published by Bottlecap Press.