In mid-May, I finally succeeded in attending this year’s Biographer International Organisation’s conference in New York in person rather than via Zoom, as we did during the pandemic. Many of the BIO conference sessions explored the issues I am facing while re-writing Breaking through the pain barrier: The extraordinary life of Dr Michael J. Cousins, […]
Greetings from the pain medicine archive at the University of California, Los Angeles, where I am reading hundreds of letters between the early pioneers of pain medicine, including my biographical subject Dr Michael J. Cousins. It’s a treasure trove showing what it took several highly committed individuals to build the field of pain medicine in […]
Finally, after my research trip being cancelled during the height of the pandemic and Australia’s international border closures, I have arrived at the John Liebeskind Pain Medicine Collection at the University of California. While here, I will study hundreds of letters and minutes of meetings to track the history of pain medicine and the contribution […]
An interview with Sylvia Plath, William Faulkner, Susan Sontag and Marilyn Monroe’s biographer, Carl Rollyson, for his series A life in biography. It is a wide-ranging conversation about science and medical biography and my experiences as a visiting scholar at Oxford University’s Centre for Life Writing. . . . . . . . . . […]
Life narrative of a scientist On 2 November I’m speaking about narrative strategy in biography at the annual Life Narrative Lab mini-conference. Richard Holmes, who wrote the biography of scientists from the eighteenth-century romantic age of science who laid the foundations for modern science, suggests today’s readers want to read about scientific work as part […]
Choices, choices, choices Last week I spoke at a literary event at the State Library of NSW about some of the choices I made about narrative strategy while writing the biography of Australia’s father of pain medicine: Breaking through the pain barrier. The extraordinary life of Dr Michael J. Cousins Here’s a video of my […]
At 1pm on Wednesday 12 October at the NSW State Library and via Zoom I’ll be exploring some of the narrative choices I made while writing “Breaking through the pain barrier. The extraordinary life of Dr Michael J. Cousins,” the biography of Australia’s father of pain medicine. Choosing narrative strategy Some of these choices were […]
“Women’s Ink” Magazine profiled my tips on some of the choices involved in writing the biography of a living scientist. These tips fall into four key categories: Choice # 1 The first was deciding how to write Michael’s biography so that it captured his passion for science, pain medicine, his patients, and his family. I […]
Talk to celebrate great scientist: This year to celebrate National Science Week I gave a talk at Mosman Library: ‘How does one write the biography of a living scientist?’ This talk explores the choices I made while writing the biography Breaking through the pain barrier. The extraordinary life of Dr Michael J. Cousins. Here’s a […]
