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Literature, Medicine, and Everything Else That Makes Us Human

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Author: irismonicavargas

I am a writer, trained in Physics and, fair to say, life-long student, as well as unavoidably, and eternally, an island girl. Puerto Rico is the Caribbean island I grew up. It is my country and my home. I migrated to Cambridge, Massachusetts to complete a fellowship at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Before that, I completed a master's degree in Physics, and a double bachelor's degree in Physics and Biology. Currently, I am a medical student, cultivating a dual career in writing and science. El Nuevo Día, Puerto Rico's main newspaper, and specifically, Sr. Francisco Vacas, gave me my first writing experience for a general audience. With Francisco as my mentor, I wrote a bi-monthly column called "Ciencia Boricua", which was named Best New Column of the Year Award by the colleagues at the newspaper in 2005. In 2009, I collaborated with Harvard Science, under the supervision of Pulizer Prize winning journalist B.D. Colen. That same year, I graduated from the Science Writing Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). During my time there, I had the amazing opportunity to polish my skills as a writer under the guidance of wonderful writers such as Russ Rymer (Genie), Alan Lightman (Einstein's Dreams), Marcia Bartusiak (The Day We Found The Universe), Robert Kanigel (Faux Leather), and Tom Levenson (Einstein in Berlin). At MIT, I also had the pleasure of learning the craft fiction writing under the tutelage of insightful, funny, and quirky Junot Díaz (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for his first novel "The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao"). That same year at Harvard, I am finally had the opportunity to formalize my love for poetry under the guidance of poet Peter Richards (Helsinki, Nude Siren). I believe that being a writer is ten percent talent and ninety percent hard work - practice, practice and more practice. Junot Diaz said it best: "You see, in my view a writer is a writer not because she writes well and easily, because she has amazing talent, because everything she does is golden. In my view a writer is a writer because even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing anyway."

Una historia de Reyes improbable

Tenía seis años mi padre y, en su televisión, en lugar de ninjagos o guerreros intergalácticos, cabalgaban los “indios”, y los vaqueros del oeste. Continue reading Una historia de Reyes improbable

irismonicavargasJanuary 6, 2021January 7, 2021Leave a comment

Esencia de Cucubano

Alto y llano componen las piezas de un municipio donde, al menos durante mi niñez, desconocían la historia de Santa Claus. Navidades eran en enero y el viaje familiar desde San Juan, en el Volkswagen de mi papá, era una excursión de grandes proporciones. Continue reading Esencia de Cucubano

irismonicavargasDecember 18, 2020December 18, 2020Leave a comment

Mama’s gonna buy you a mocking bird

First I said nothing. Then, “Sure Ma, I’ll do it.” I waited a beat. “But don’t you think we will be suspicious, running out of here at two a.m., you in your robe, carrying a lung machine?” She didn’t think so. Continue reading Mama’s gonna buy you a mocking bird

irismonicavargasNovember 12, 2020November 12, 2020Leave a comment

La utópica liberación de LaRupra

Es cuestión de moda. Utópica liberación. Continue reading La utópica liberación de LaRupra

irismonicavargasOctober 24, 2020October 25, 2020Leave a comment

To My Wasted Eggs

This is a video conceptualization of the poem To My Wasted Eggs by Pamela L. Taylor. I found this beautiful poem while reading the journal JAMA. The poem, written by Pamela L. Taylor, PhD., is a powerful piece made even more so by the fact that it describes the reality of many women in academia or in pursuit of an academic career (or a career … Continue reading To My Wasted Eggs

irismonicavargasOctober 17, 2020October 25, 2020Leave a comment

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Literature, Medicine, & Everything Else That Makes Us Human

Stethoscopes & Pencils (Lápices y estetoscopios) es una iniciativa literaria, nacida en Puerto Rico, para contar historias importantes sobre nuestra condición humana mediante la exploración de las intersecciones entre la ciencia y el arte de la medicina, el pensamiento filosófico del humanismo, y la literatura.

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Stethoscopes & Pencils is a literary collaborative through which to tell stories that explore our human condition  via the intersections between the science and the art of medicine, humanism and literature.

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