Daniel Becker, MD practices and teaches internal medicine at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, where he also directs the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Humanities, edits the on-line literary journal Hospital Drive, and encourages colleagues and students to recognize and nurture their muse. He is the author of a chapbook of poems, Chance, has placed poems in various literary and clinical journals (semi-finalist for Pablu Neruda prize in Nimrod; semifinalist for Nagatuck River Review narrative poetry prize), and is currently working on a collection of stories, Doctored.

Jeanne Bereiter, MD is a child and adolescent psychiatrist and fellowship Training Director at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine where she also teaches writing for medical students, residents, and faculty. She has a background in family medicine and in creative writing. She is interested in the use of narrative to deepen understanding and has published personal and medical narratives in medical and literary journals.

The Thirteenth Annual Taos Writing Retreat for Health Professionals, sponsored by the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center Office of Continuing Medical Education and the Permanente Journal, Kaiser Permanente, will take place August 5-11, 2012 at the historic Mabel Dodge Luhan House in Taos, New Mexico.

Mornings from nine to noon, participants meet in the graceful Luhan House classroom to write together and discuss various aspects of writing, like how to grip a reader's attention in a first paragraph or a last line. Afternoons are free for scheduled writing consultations with faculty members, for optional small group meetings, and for solitary writing, reflection, and communion with the beauty of Taos. Evenings offer informal gatherings that include music, readings, videos, dancing, and distinguished visiting writers (Jimmy Santiago Baca, Ellen Meloy, Leslie Marmon Silko, Linda Hogan, Mark Spragg, Ana Castillo, Sandra Cisneros, David Sklar, Frank Huyler and Ann Nietzke have been guests).

Too often in hospitals and clinics, in busy professional lives, there is no time for reflection. But here, in a historic setting that has hosted great writers and artists from D.H. Lawrence to Georgia O'Keeffe, stories are told, shared, written. The writers are relaxed and energized. A synergy occurs, a mix of fellow writers, gorgeous surroundings, fabulous food, spontaneous encounters that add up to more than the sum of their parts.