“Is There a Poet in This Hospital?: Arts and Humanities-Informed Healthcare.”

Renée K. Nicholson’s creative and academic work have appeared widely, in such venues as The Gettysburg Review, The Millions, Electric Literature, Poets & Writers, Bellevue Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her single-authored books include Postscripts, Fierce and Delicate: Essays on Dance and Illness, and Roundabout Directions to Lincoln Center. She also co-edited the award-winning anthology, Bodies of Truth: Personal Narratives of Illness, Disability, and Medicine. Nicholson splits her artistic pursuits between writing and dance, with scholarship in narrative medicine.

Her performing career in ballet cut short by the onset of Rheumatoid Arthritis, Nicholson has taught ballet and other classes at West Virginia University and is a frequent guest instructor and coach. She recently directed the Humanities Center at WVU, where she regularly collaborated with health professionals and patients to tell authentic stories from healthcare. Nicholson holds a Certificate of Professional Achievement in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University, where she is active in alumnx and affinity groups.

The Department of English’s annual Tag Lecture is endowed through a generous gift from Dr. and Mrs. Ella Tag.