Alison Snow, PhD, LCSW-R (left), Emily Rubin, and Manjeet Chadha, MD
Cancer patients had much to express during the COVID-19 pandemic, and their heartfelt stories can now be read in a new book, The Write Treatment Anthology Volume 2: The Pandemic Years (Write Treatment Anthology Series). The book includes essays, short stories, and poems from 15 cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers—all members of the Write Treatment Workshops for Mount Sinai Hospitals.
“During the pandemic, in the spring of 2021, I found this loving and supportive group while they met on Zoom,” writes workshop member Liz York in an excerpt from the anthology. “It was difficult to meet people who understood the emotional challenges of cancer, so the group immediately became important to me.”
The sentiment is shared by novelist Emily Rubin, workshop founder and cancer survivor who spoke to a large audience of fellow patients, their families, and caregivers at a recent book launch for the anthology on Wednesday, November 15, held at Mount Sinai-Union Square. She was introduced by Manjeet Chadha, MD, Director, Department of Radiation Oncology, Mount Sinai Downtown, and Professor, Radiation Oncology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, who described her as a “guiding light and a huge resource in helping many of our patients find an outlet through their writing.”
As Ms. Rubin took the microphone, she told the packed auditorium that running the workshops has helped her to “connect through the creative act of writing with so many who, like me, have been participants in these workshops, come and stay with a yearning to tell stories and hear those of others. Together we have built a supportive, creative community of writers.”
The Write Treatment Workshops: Evolution and Founding
Emily Rubin, novelist and workshop co-founder
A co-editor of the anthology, Ms. Rubin founded one of the workshops in 2011 after she completed breast cancer treatment at Mount Sinai Beth Israel. The other workshop was started by Susan Ribner, an author who was treated for ovarian cancer at Mount Sinai West. While the two coincidentally formed the workshops around the same time, they had met years before at an Aikido dojo, a type of martial arts gym, in Chelsea. They collaborated on workshops and book readings, and after Ms. Ribner went into hospice care, Ms. Rubin took over both groups. Ms. Ribner died in 2014.
Before the pandemic, the workshops were held in-person at the Blavatnik Family Chelsea Medical Center and at Mount Sinai West but moved to Zoom during the pandemic. While the workshops continue to be held virtually, they stick to the same routine they have always followed since their origins: Ms. Rubin emails prompts, such as quotes, cards, or photographs, to participants to spur their imaginations. Each participant then writes for about a half-hour, aiming to create a short, finished product. About 600 people now take part in the workshops regularly—a number that has doubled since the workshops began.
The book, published on Amazon.com through grants and crowdfunding, includes an in-memoriam section with writings from those who have died. In one excerpt, Susan Masaad, MD (1938-2021), writes of a virtual visit with her gastrointestinal oncologist of whom she was very fond: “I have come to appreciate his wonkiness, encyclopedic knowledge of all the ways we can slash and burn the cancer, as well as his absolutely exquisite taste in clothing…”
In another excerpt, patient Norman Ford (1935-2021) offers words of encouragement: “To you my cancer-laden brothers and sisters I have a message. This is not a chore. In the thoughts and feelings on display you expressed courage, anger, uncertainty, and more…”
Copies of the The Write Treatment Anthology Volume 2: The Pandemic Years (Write Treatment Anthology Series)
The Write Treatment Anthology Volume 2: The Pandemic Years (Write Treatment Anthology Series) follows Volume 1, published in 2022, which includes essays, short stories, and poems from 23 workshop participants. During the recent book launch, Alison Snow, PhD, LCSW-R, Director, Cancer Center Supportive Services at Mount Sinai Downtown Cancer Centers, called the second anthology’s publication “an extraordinary accomplishment” for the hundreds of Mount Sinai patients who continue to live—and write—with cancer.