Suzanne Koven — ”Literature opens the conversation.”

Slow Stories

“Tell me the whole story from the beginning.” This line has impacted Dr. Suzanne Koven in more ways than one. The revered doctor and writer in residence at Massachusetts General Hospital has cultivated a career that uniquely rests at the intersection of medicine and storytelling. She recently illuminated these experiences in her debut essay collection, Letter to a Young Female Physician.

In Letter to a Young Female Physician, Suzanne reflects on her expansive medical life through lenses including identity, family, and literature. The latter was especially pertinent to this conversation. In this interview, Suzanne shared more about the rituals that have informed medical and writing practice, her thoughts on slow storytelling, and how reading and writing have brought meaning to her community—and life. This episode also opens with a reading by Gia Salvaggio.