Nathan Gray with Shadra Strickland: THE HUMAN REMAINS

On November 11, we welcome Dr. Nathan Gray to the Ivy to celebrate the launch of his wonderful new graphic memoir, The Human Remains: Drawing Out Compassion in Medicine!

Now Assistant Professor of Palliative Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Dr. Gray charts his path from first-year medical student to palliative care physician in this memoir. Along the way, he discovered for the first time what medical school entailed, saw himself drifting away from the ideals that had called him to the field, and finally found a way to weave the science of medicine into each person’s particular story of suffering, meaning, and mortality in palliative care. There, he rediscovered the possibility of practicing medicine without losing sight of the human being before him. Honest, searching, and at times darkly funny, The Human Remains is a meditation on the fragile work of becoming a doctor who can still feel.

Dr. Gray will be in conversation with illustrator, author, and educator Shadra Strickland! We hope you'll join us for this exciting event. We'll also be hosting Dr. Gray at Bird in Hand on November 17 as part of the Vital Perspectives on Healthcare and Science series, and hope to see you there as well!

Order THE HUMAN REMAINS here!

Nathan Gray, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Palliative Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. At Johns Hopkins, Dr. Gray has been a part of the expansion of palliative services for Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center's Thoracic Oncology Clinic and now serves as associate medical director for outpatient Palliative Care at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He sees patients in both the hospital and clinic setting. Dr. Gray's scholarly work examines the role of palliative care in serving vulnerable patient populations as well as the intersection of medicine and humanities. He is specifically interested in the power of graphic art to enhance communication in medicine. He is an award-winning comic artist, and his graphic work has been featured in the Washington Post, British Medical Journal, and Los Angeles Times, along with other outlets.
Shadra Strickland studied design, writing, and illustration at Syracuse University and later went on to complete her M.F.A. at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. She won the Ezra Jack Keats Award and the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent in 2009 for her work in her first picturebook, Bird, written by Zetta Elliott. Strickland co-illustrated Our Children Can Soar, winner of a 2010 NAACP Image Award. She has published with Lee and Low Books, Simon and Schuster, Random House, Candlewick, Chronicle Books, and Little Brown. Her books have received recognition from the American Library Association, Junior Library Guild, and other prominent literary organizations. She is an agent-at-large with Painted-Words Represents, and is represented by Lori Nowicki.