Join us for Community of Practice:  What We Pick Up and Look With Me

Not just the act of reading fiction, or watching a film, but bonding with others over the same works—or creating our own—are, for many of us, a path to seeing ourselves more clearly, healing from trauma, and finding community.

Portland author and longtime writing workshop facilitator Stacy Brewster offers up one of his short stories—“Suicide Watch”—as a way to talk about fiction and film and how they sometimes see us better than we’re ready to see ourselves. “Suicide Watch” is one of three connected stories in Stacy’s recently published collection of short stories WHAT WE PICK UP. 

This workshop will feature prompt-based writing, sharing, and discussion.  

SPECIAL NOTE: In preparation for this workshop, please read Stacy’s short story “Suicide Watch” a link to the story will be provided upon registering for the event. What We Pick Up is also available for purchase in print, ebook, and audiobook at Buckman Publishing . Please note that this story contains discussion of suicide and suicide ideation.

Facilitator Stacy Brewster is a Portland, Oregon-based fiction writer, poet, and screenwriter and the author of the short story collection WHAT WE PICK UP (Buckman Publishing, 2021). Born in Los Angeles and raised both there and in the San Francisco Bay Area, Stacy studied filmmaking in New York and has since worked in television, independent film, advertising, publishing, politics, and public service. His fiction and poetry have appeared in NEW SOUTH, THE MADISON REVIEW, GERTRUDE, PLENITUDE, BUCKMXN JOURNAL, and THE GAY & LESBIAN REVIEW WORLDWIDE, among numerous others. He was awarded the 2019 Oregon Literary Arts Fellowship in Drama for his teleplay GARGOYLES & DANDELIONS, an as-yet-unproduced one-hour queer noir series set in Los Angeles in the late 1940s. He is currently adapting several of his short stories for television. Learn more at www.stacybrewster.com

What emerges within your observation span when you remain looking longer than the initial attention allows? How can slowing the pace of looking give birth to deeper awareness of the semiotic significance and healing opportunities in the visible world? This introduction to close looking practice will offer insights, and practice.

This workshop includes a curated digital gallery walk to access the White Coat Warm heART online gallery. Through a careful selection of discussions, and small group immersive exercises you will add to your existing toolbox of visual skills to sharpen your observation skills, and to express your creativity.

We warmly invite you to “look with us”.

Co-Facilitator Carol-Ann Courneya, an Associate Professor in the Department of Cellular and Physiological Science and Assistant Dean of Student Affairs (Vancouver-Fraser Medical Program), has served as a mentor to hundreds of students over the course of her career with UBC’s Faculty of Medicine. Dr. Courneya believes creativity plays an important role in expanding and strengthening the skillsets of medical practitioners. In 2001, she established Heartfelt Images — an annual art competition for medical and dental students — that continues to attract hundreds of submissions every year. 

Co-Facilitator Adam Hoverman is a Family Medicine and Public Health Physician with Multnomah County Health Department, where he combines primary care and public health practice caring for Immigrant and Refugee populations. He started as a paramedic in rural Northern California, before entering medical school at A.T. Still University, in Kirksville, Missouri. Adam completed Family Medicine Residency at the University of Minnesota, and worked with the Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic before completing a Diploma of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Most recently Adam has completed a second residency in Preventive Medicine at the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health, along with a Masters in Public Health in Health Management and Policy. He facilitates narrative medicine small groups for students and health care workers, and writes poetry in his spare time.