T.D. Kirsch is a physician, humanitarian, and author who works in disasters and humanitarian crises—refugee camps, the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City, hurricanes and earthquakes around the world, and epidemic such as Ebola in Liberia and (of course) COVID-19, while working for organizations such as the WHO, UNICEF, Pan American Health Organization, Red Cross, CDC, FEMA, and the US Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA).
Kirsch is a ‘disaster scientist’ and has authored almost two hundred scientific articles, abstracts, chapters, and a disaster medical textbook. He is also a creative writer who has published fiction and nonfiction in the Atlantic, Washington Post, Health Affairs, PCT Communicator, and JAMA.
T.D. Kirsch is a physician, humanitarian, and author who works in disasters and humanitarian crises—refugee camps, the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City, hurricanes and earthquakes around the world, and epidemic such as Ebola in Liberia and (of course) COVID-19, while working for organizations such as the WHO, UNICEF, Pan American Health Organization, Red Cross, CDC, FEMA, and the US Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA).
Kirsch is a ‘disaster scientist’ and has authored almost two hundred scientific articles, abstracts, chapters, and a disaster medical textbook. He is also a creative writer who has published fiction and nonfiction in the Atlantic, Washington Post, Health Affairs, PCT Communicator, and JAMA.
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Before medical school, he received a degree in fine arts with a focus on painting and drawing and has pursued creative projects in the visual and literary arts since. He flees to the wilderness frequently, from days to months, to seek solace and recover from all the personal and global disasters he has survived. At some point, he must have done something right because President Obama honored his humanitarian work at a White House ceremony as one of the ’Heroes in Healthcare Fighting Ebola.’
"What Happens If Health-Care Workers Stop Showing Up?" The Atlantic (3/25/20) "The Nightmare of Rationing Healthcare" Washington Post (3/21/20) |
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Interview with T.D. Kirsch
about his story "Beautiful Dead Boys"
Honorable Mention for The Scribes Prize
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What inspired this piece?
The ongoing toll of AIDS continues to devastate communities around the world. The emotional cost of caring for people too young to die continues to tear at the souls of healthcare providers.
What draws you to the micro-fiction format?
I seek to find focus and precision with words to create a perfect, crystal mood.
Who are some authors that inspire you?
Hemingway with his sparse approach to language. Susan Wolf with her precise approach to ideas.
If you could continue writing your story after these 100 words, what would happen next?
Lost and adrift, the protagonist plunges into one experience after another, good and bad, in a relentless spiral of seeking meaning and a way forward.
What's next on the horizon for you?
I continue to write essays and short stories focused on moral choices and am in the final throes of a memoir, 'Walking with Ghosts.'
The ongoing toll of AIDS continues to devastate communities around the world. The emotional cost of caring for people too young to die continues to tear at the souls of healthcare providers.
What draws you to the micro-fiction format?
I seek to find focus and precision with words to create a perfect, crystal mood.
Who are some authors that inspire you?
Hemingway with his sparse approach to language. Susan Wolf with her precise approach to ideas.
If you could continue writing your story after these 100 words, what would happen next?
Lost and adrift, the protagonist plunges into one experience after another, good and bad, in a relentless spiral of seeking meaning and a way forward.
What's next on the horizon for you?
I continue to write essays and short stories focused on moral choices and am in the final throes of a memoir, 'Walking with Ghosts.'