May 13, 2023

Healing poetry with Saki Mookherjee

On May 4, 2023, Sati Mookherjee (‘93, English w/College Honors) guest lectured Dr. Arthur Ginsberg’s “Brain and the Healing Power of Poetry,” and read from her recent poetry collections: Eye (2022) and Ways of Being (released days before the event).

The course introduces students to the role of poetry in dealing with illness and grief as well as where and how poetry activates and transforms the human brain. Woven together with the readings, Mookherjee shared how her family stories and unusual journey — from Honors English to medical school to government to running a business — informs her writing. 

Mookerjee’s visit, co-hosted by the UW Honors and English Departments, was open to the whole UW community and she gifted a copy of her poetry collections to the Honors Library in Mary Gates Hall 211.

The Daily reporter, Piper Davidson, wrote a beautiful summary of the experience. Click below to check it out!