Course Details
Course offered Spring 2026
HONORS 398 A: The Brain and the Healing Power of Poetry (A&H) (A&H)
HONORS 398 A: The Brain and the Healing Power of Poetry (A&H) (A&H)
SLN 21202 (View UW registration info »)
Note: this is a 2 credit course so will only count towards UW general education requirements, not Honors curriculum.
Brain and the Healing Power of Poetry introduces students to the role of poetry in dealing with illness and grief, and where poetry originates in the human brain. Students will work in a workshop setting and write their own poems culminating in a book that will be published by the end of the semester. Great poets of the 19th and 20th centuries will be reviewed as well as basic brain anatomy, physiology and functional imaging techniques.