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Marc Straus only began writing poetry seriously
in 1991 when he joined a workshop at the 92nd Street
Y. Within the next year, his poems were accepted
to major literary journals including Field, Ploughshares,
Kenyon Review and TriQuarterly. In 1993, he was
the recipient of a poetry fellowship at Yaddo, where
in ninety years its only previous poet physician
to serve a fellowship was William Carlos Williams.
Marc Straus frequently writes about cancer medicine,
about the dialogue between patients and health care
providers, about ethics, and most importantly, about
how information is conveyed and received.
Marc Straus has won numerous awards as a poet including:
1993 - National Poetry Competition
1998 - Robert Penn Warren Award Lecture in
the Humanities from Yale University Medical School.
2002 - Master's lecture at NYU Medical School
2005 - Annual Lecture at National Cancer
Institute
Book: NOT GOD
 Marc
Straus dramatizes in NOT GOD the journey through
illness. Alternating words of a patient and doctor,
these harrowing, eloquent poems for performance
form a remarkable dialogue. They reveal the language
of the hospital - the shuffle of nurses, the clicks
and beeps of machines, the counting of pills, the
measuring of words - unwillingly but painstakingly
learned by the patient and evoke the delicate bond
between a doctor struggling with limitations and
a patient in search of clarity and dignity.
NOT GOD has been produced on stage first (in an
earlier version) by SUNY Purchase Theater program.
It has been produced on stages in Pennsylvania and
California and in 2004 in New York City, at The
York Theatre at Citicorp: Louis Chiodo, producer
and Vincent Scarpinato, Director. Tom Bozell played
the doctor and Mary Kay Adams, the patient. In 2005,
it was produced by MCC Theater: Lisa Peterson, Director,
David Chandler, doctor, and Becky Ann Baker, patient.
In 2004, THE BRIDGE; the patient poems in NOT GOD,
was a full museum exhibit at Lehigh University Art
Galleries, curated by Ricardo Viera, a collaborative
installation with Rick Levinson as the visual artist.
Karen Robichaud writes, "As
a practicing oncologist, Marc J. Straus uses his
own experiences to fuel his writing in his first
play, Not God. Straus’ third
book explores the hope, tragedy, and difficulty
of communication felt when dealing with the effects
of cancer. Though Straus’ first two books
of poetry, One Word and Symmetry,
also deal with human reaction to cancer, Straus
enters new territory by creating a play in verse
in Not God. The verse is simple and direct, sharing
the stories of two people: the patient and the
doctor." Read
Full Review
From Literature, Arts & Medicine: "One way of looking at this book
is as a collection of 54 separate poems. Some of the poems are new, but many
have appeared in Marc Straus’s earlier collections, One Word and Symmetry.
However, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. In Not God the author
has crafted and arranged his poems into a dramatic whole. Hence, the subtitle, “A
Play in Verse.” In this play there are two protagonists, patient and doctor,
who take turns speaking. Their voices create a dynamic interplay of incident,
ideas, and emotion." Read
Full Review
Tom Lux writes, "What these poems are talking
about is cancer...and life or death. Straus does
this brilliantly and with great subtlety, using
spare, simple language, understatement, nuance.
to convey the huge range of emotions and strategies
of both doctor and patient."
Book: Symmetry
 In
this second book of poems, Marc Straus addresses
the hopes and the tragedies of his profession. The
work is a commentary on his experience in the medical
field and a collection of rich, vivid monologues
written from the points of view of both doctor and
patient. These poems show a rare sensitivity not
only to those who are suffering but also to the
details that distinguish each life.
Ann Hamilton writes, "Symmetry takes the
more difficult path of evoking the like measure
of the hand's agency in healing and in hurting,
the gap between the eye that listens and the voice
that tells, the twin positions of the doctor and
the patient. . . . Just as a thing seen can't be
unseen, these felt words can't be unfelt. Marc Straus
evokes the presence of what it is to be daily in
the face of not being as it dwells below the surface
and floods unbidden into recognition."
Book: One Word
 In
this fine collection of poems, Marc Straus struggles
with the distance between physician and patient,
and the imbalance of power between them. The physician
appears very powerful (he can change the course
of a life with "one word"), but in another,
deeper way he is unable to communicate and knows
none of the right answers. These poems are skillful,
cool, controlled--beneath them, though, the reader
feels a well of emotion under pressure. Will it
emerge? Would it be good for it to emerge? These
are the important questions with which Marc Straus
leaves us, balanced at the edge of our seats.
From Booklist: "A TV executive once
noted that one formula for producing a successful
series is to combine human drama with medicine
or law. Although no book of poems has yet
been adapted for the small screen, Straus'
book seems a good candidate should that shining
day ever come. Straus uses his experience
as a physician to explore the moral and ethical
responsibilities as well as the emotional
dilemmas inherent to the profession. Offering
a new perspective on patient-doctor relations,
he brings humanity into the sterile hospital
environment and puts a human voice into all
the bad news he must give, a human conscience
into all the heart-wrenching things he must
do."
Marc Straus is available for poetry readings
and interviews: Contact his publicist, Newman Communications
(617-254-4500), or email Marc
(marcstraus@hotmail.com). |
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