Being human is a terminal condition and the best medicine we have is each other.
Coming Soon
What Looks Like Bravery
How does one ethically approach blurbing a book a) in which she appears and b) whose author actually lives inside her heart? Well, she weighs the alternative — saying nothing — which would be, frankly, criminal. Laurel's writing is so evocative and clear-eyed that not only will she take you on a cinematic journey through her life, but you'll also find yourself feeling feelings that you weren't quite sure you were capable of. Like me, you might even finish the book and, days later, sense something familiar about it tugging from deep within you. Just as Eat Pray Love and Wild inspired millions to go on journeys around the world in search of something deeper, I suspect that What Looks Like Bravery will send countless readers on a different — yet no less life-changing or profound — sort of internal pilgrimage, as it has done for me.
–Chef and NYT bestselling author Samin Nosrat
My book is coming out on March 14, 2023. You can pre-order the book here:
Click here for mental health support for clinicians.
Hi. My name is Laurel and I am a writer. I’m passionate about finding a path through the hardest things in service of mine and others’ healing.
For as long as the Covid-19 pandemic lasts, I am leading free reflective writing sessions for healthcare workers and their loved ones! We are ICU nurses, surgeons, social workers, clinical chaplains, emergency docs, anesthesiologists, PAs, nurses assistants, pediatricians, respiratory therapists, bioethicists, clinical students and more. We have become a global family. Sign up here to join us virtually or here to join in person.
My next book, What Looks Like Bravery is coming out with Simon & Schuster on March 14 2023. It’s my own coming-of-age story about the cost of holding in grief as a child, the power of facing it as an adult, and the ways that loss can transform us into the people we want to become.
My first book, Animal Madness, was a NYT bestseller about the emotional lives of humans and other animals. I’ve also written about overcoming loss, burnout and overwhelm in medicine, technology, eagles, art, intelligence, dying well, coming of age in the Amazon, mental illness, and many other things—for Radiolab, the Guardian, the Wall Street Journal, Wired, the New York Times, and National Geographic, among other places.
I am the Director of Writing and Storytelling at the Stanford School of Medicine’s Medicine and the Muse Program where I help physicians, medical students and other healthcare workers communicate more meaningfully and authentically with one another, their patients and themselves. I also do things like this. I have a PhD from MIT, am a Senior TED Fellow, a regular contributor to Pop Up Magazine, and am training to become a (secular) hospital chaplain.
Still curious? Read more about me here.
