Rafael Campo (born 1964

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

) is an American

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

, doctor, and author.

Life

Rafael Campo is the poetry editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association. He graduated from

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educatio ...

and

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...

. He formally practiced medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts and was Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. His writing focuses on themes that promote equality and justice for

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

people,

people of color The term "person of color" ( : people of color or persons of color; abbreviated POC) is primarily used to describe any person who is not considered "white". In its current meaning, the term originated in, and is primarily associated with, the U ...

, and

working-class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...

people. He served as a resident poet at

Brandeis University , mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = NECHE , president = Ronald D. Liebowitz , pro ...

and the

University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

. He frequently reads at colleges, including

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, and Colby-Sawyer College. He formerly taught in the

Lesley University Lesley University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education. As of 2018-19 Lesley University enrolled 6,593 students (2,707 undergraduate and 3,886 graduate). History ...

low-residency MFA writing program in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

Work

His work has served as the inspiration for composers and other artists. His poem "Silence=Death" was set by composer

Joseph Hallman Joseph Hallman (born Nov. 20, 1979) is an American composer. A functional orphan, Hallman was born and raised in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He attended Girard College from first to twelfth grades. Based in Philade ...

and premiered as part of the AIDS Quilt Songbook Project. His work was included in the "Best American Poetry and Pushcart Prize" anthologies and has been published on numerous occasions in periodicals such as ''The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times Magazine,'' and ''The Washington Post "''Book World".

Philosophy

Rafael Campo believes that medicine should be about treating patients’ diseases and problems while focusing on their humanity. He claims that it would be wrong for a physician to only focus on “the heartless, purely fact-based narrative we record in their charts”. Instead, Campo hopes to inspire physicians through his work to reflect on the experiences of patients and address their needs appropriately, using poetry. Campo argues that poetry can often be crucial to the healing and recovery process.

Awards

* First Prize 2013 Hippocrates Open International Prize for Poetry and Medicine * National Poetry Series, the

Lambda Literary Award Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys", are awarded yearly by Lambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ literature.The awards were instituted i ...

* 1997

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

Works

* * * * * * * *''Poetry of Healing: A Doctor's Education in Empathy, Identity, and Desire.'' W.W. Norton, 1997. ISBN, 0393040097.

References

External links

Annotations at the NYU Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database
of several Campo works, with links to texts and audio of the poet commenting and reading poems

{{DEFAULTSORT:Campo, Rafael 1964 births American gay writers American writers of Cuban descent Amherst College alumni Harvard Medical School alumni Living people Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry winners Formalist poets American male poets Lesley University faculty 20th-century American poets 21st-century American poets American LGBT poets 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers Gay poets