2025 PROGRAM
Breaking the Mould: Women, Medicine, and the Power of Storytelling
DATE:
Saturday 29th March
LOCATION:
Darley Smith Building
COST:
$22
Doctors are trained to diagnose, treat, and heal—but what happens when they turn to writing to make sense of their experiences? In this conversation, Sarah Arachchi (Brown, Female, Doctor), Lisa Kenway (All You Took From Me), and Jumaana Abdu (Translations) explore the intersection of medicine and storytelling, reflecting on the challenges of being women in a high-pressure profession and how their backgrounds shape their perspectives.
From navigating identity and bias in the medical field to the emotional weight of patient care, these doctor-writers share what their profession has taught them about resilience, humanity, and the stories that need to be told. Why do doctors write? What role does personal narrative play in medicine? And how can storytelling change the way we see healthcare, race, and gender?
Join us for an intimate and thought-provoking discussion on breaking barriers in medicine and literature.
Host: Charlotte Rimmer
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY
The Manly Writers' Festival acknowledges and thanks the original storytellers on the lands on which our events take place, the Gameraygal people of the Eora Nation. We acknowledge and respect their continuing connection and culture, and we pay our respects to ancestors and Elders, past and present, as well as emerging leaders.