October 8, 7:30 - 9:30 pm (date changed)
Across Bodies
Richard McCann & Neil Theise
ACROSS BODIES features Richard McCann, whose memoir-in-progress, The Resurrectionist investigates illness and mortality through a narrative exploration of his experience as a liver transplant recipient, and Dr. Neil Theise, a pioneering liver pathologist, who draws inspiration from complexity theory and non-Western models of the body for health and healing.
Richard McCann is the author of Mother of Sorrows, a work of fiction, and Ghost Letters, a collection of poems (1994 Beatrice Hawley Award, 1933 Capricorn Poetry Award). He is also the editor (with Michael Klein) of Things Shaped in Passing: More 'Poets for Life' Writing from the AIDS Pandemic. His fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry have appeared in such magazines as The Atlantic, Ms., Esquire, Ploughshares, Tin House, and the Washington Post Magazine, and in numerous anthologies, including The O. Henry Prize Stories 2007 and Best American Essays 2000. He is currently working on a memoir, The Resurrectionist, which explores the experience and meanings of illness and mortality through a narrative exploration of his experience as a liver transplant recipient.
Neil Theise, M.D. While his daily work is as a clinical diagnostic liver pathologist and Professor of Pathology and of Medicine at the Beth Israel Medical Center of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, he is also an internationally recognized pioneer of multi-organ adult stem cell plasticity research, publishing on that topic in the leading scientific journals Science, Nature, and Cell and helping to stoke the stem cell debates of the last decade. His research revised understandings of human liver microanatomy which, in turn, led directly to identification of possible liver stem cell niches and the marrow-to-liver regeneration pathway. Drawing inspiration from complexity theory, he is also interested in non-Western models of the body for health and healing, and Western scientific parallels to insights from Buddhist and other contemplative/mystical traditions. He is a Senior Student of Roshi Pat Enkyo O'Hara of the Village Zendo in New York.

Richard McCann
Richard McCann is the author of Mother of Sorrows, a work of fiction, and Ghost Letters, a collection of poems (1994 Beatrice Hawley Award, 1933 Capricorn Poetry Award). He is also the editor (with Michael Klein) of Things Shaped in Passing: More 'Poets for Life' Writing from the AIDS Pandemic. His fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry have appeared in such magazines as The Atlantic, Ms., Esquire, Ploughshares, Tin House, and the Washington Post Magazine, and in numerous anthologies, including The O. Henry Prize Stories 2007 and Best American Essays 2000. He is currently working on a memoir, The Resurrectionist, which explores the experience and meanings of illness and mortality through a narrative exploration of his experience as a liver transplant recipient.
For his work, Richard McCann has received grants and awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Christopher Isherwood Foundation, the Fulbright Foundation, Yaddo, The MacDowell Colony, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, on whose Board of Trustees he served from 2000-2008. He earned his MA in Creative Writing and Modern Literature from Hollins University and his Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Iowa, where he was a Rockefeller Fellow. He grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland, and he has lived in numerous places, including Sweden, Germany, and Spain. He now lives in Washington, DC, where he teaches in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at American University. He also serves the Board of Directors of the PEN Faulkner Foundation and is a Member of the Corporation of Yaddo.
Neil Theise
Neil Theise, M.D. is a diagnostic liver pathologist and adult stem cell researcher in New York City, where he is Professor of Pathology and of Medicine at the Beth Israel Medical Center of Albert Einstein College of Medicine. His research revised understandings of human liver microanatomy which, in turn, led directly to identification of possible liver stem cell niches and the marrow-to-liver regeneration pathway. He is considered a pioneer of multi-organ adult stem cell plasticity and has published on that topic in Science, Nature, and Cell.
Subsequently, while continuing laboratory and clinical research, he has extended his work to areas of theoretical biology and complexity theory, defining a "post-modern biology." These ideas suggest that alternate models of the body, other than Cell Doctrine, may be necessary to understand non-Western approaches to the body and health and also that understanding Western hard sciences through a complexity theory lens provides direct analogies to the major principles of Buddhist metaphysics, including emptiness of inherent existence, interdependence, impermanence, and Karmic effects.
He is currently helping to develop an adult stem cell clinical research program at Beth Israel for chronic diseases of the liver, lungs, and skin, investigating melatonin-related physiology of human liver stem cell and regeneration, and exploring ways to study how the physiology of regeneration is altered by yogic practices. He is also a long time meditator and student of Roshi Pat Enkyo O'Hara of the Village Zendo in New York City. His writings on diverse topics can be found at www.neiltheise.com.
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