Ben is a Med-Peds hospitalist at the University of Minnesota Medical Center. He serves as the Co-Director for the Center for the Art of Medicine in the University of Minnesota Medical school. His essays have been published in JAMA and the New England Journal.

When he attended the first Midwest Physician Writers Retreat, he realized the he had finally found the community he had spent years looking for and imagined a way to bring that community to any physician writer who is looking for a place to belong.

Ben Trappey, MD

President and Founder

As a Clinical Associate Professor of Rheumatology at the University of Iowa. She holds an undergraduate degree in Poetry Writing and Neurobiology from Northwestern University. She received her medical degree from Medical College of Wisconsin where she also completed her residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics as well as her fellowship in Rheumatology. She holds an MFA degree in Nonfiction Writing from University of Iowa. She is a faculty member in the Program in Bioethics and Humanities at Carver College of Medicine where she teaches a class to first year medical and physician assistant students on social justice and an advanced elective to medical students on opinion editorial writing to help students improve the public’s understanding of health and healthcare. She serves as the nonfiction editor of The Examined Life Journal. Her essays have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, JAMA, The Des Moines Register, and on WUWM Milwaukee Public Radio’s Lake Effect.

Bruce Campbell is a Professor Emeritus at the Medical College of Wisconsin, having held appointments in both the Department of Otolaryngology and the Institute for Health and Equity (Bioethics and Medical Humanities). He grew up in the Chicago area and attended Purdue University and Rush Medical College. He completed an otolaryngology residency at MCW and a head and neck surgery fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center. He returned to Milwaukee and joined the MCW faculty in 1987. He completed Columbia University’s Certification of Professional Achievement in Narrative Medicine in 2019. He retired from clinical practice in 2022 but works with medical students and residents on narrative projects and in seminars. His clinical focus was in the diagnosis and surgical management of head and neck cancer. He had an NIH grant to study cancer survivorship, investigated a variety of head and neck cancer topics, and published papers on medical student reflective writing. He has an interest in global surgery in under-resourced regions of the world and worked with surgical partners in Tanzania and Kenya. Now that the crazy deadlines, demands, and documentation of a clinical practice no longer drive his existence, he continues to write and edit, while trying to focus on the things that are most important. He wonders why he can’t get more accomplished. He and his wife, Kathi, live in suburban Milwaukee where they raised four wonderful children. If you don’t have to be somewhere soon, ask him about his grandchildren.

Dr. Susan Hata is a primary care physician, medical educator and writer. She practices Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and is an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School.  She has extensive medical education and leadership experience, having served as the former Associate Program Director for the MGH Med-Peds Residency for 15 years. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction from Pacific University and was a 2021 Public Voices Fellow through the OpEd Project. She is also a trained narrative medicine facilitator through the Northwest Narrative Medicine Collaborative. She leads physician support interventions, such as reflective practice, support groups, Balint groups, executive coaching, writing groups and retreats, at Massachusetts General Hospital and around the country. She teaches locally and nationally on topics such as imposter phenomenon, self-forgiveness after medical error, disillusionment, and compassionate mentoring.  Dr. Hata’s writing has been published in journals and magazines including New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, Boston Globe, USA Today, and sneaker wave magazine.

Shanda McManus is an Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine and author of Brother Epistles: A Sister's Memoir (Split/Lip Press, June 23, 2026), which received a starred notice from Kirkus Reviews for being “an affecting tribute to a lost brother and a nuanced portrait of what it means to be Black and upper-middle class in America”.

Dr. McManus bridges the worlds of medicine and storytelling. Her writing has appeared in Bellevue Literary Review, Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine, and other literary and medical journals. A 2021 PEN America Emerging Voices Fellow, 2023 Baldwin For The Arts Fellow, and founding member of bookinc.org, a New Jersey writing collective, she is a proud literary citizen.

Trisha Paul is a pediatric oncologist and palliative care physician. She holds an MFA in creative writing from NYU.

Trisha writes about the art and science of caring for patients. She believes that narrative is an agent for change that can enhance humanism, in medicine and beyond.

Her writing has been published in numerous anthologies, medical journals like JAMA and Journal of Clinical Oncology, literary journals like Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine, and more. Her essay Stroppy Sevens was nominated for the 2019 Pushcart Prize.

Anthony Williams is a Med-Peds hospitalist at HealthPartners in the Twin Cities of Minnesota who splits his clinical time between Regions and Children’s Minnesota. He is passionate about creative writing and the power of narrative expression to cultivate resilience.

His writing has been featured in Twin Cities Public Television’s Emmy Winning Art+Medicine series.