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ORVALLIS, Ore. – Award-winning authors who also practice in the field of medicine will gather at Oregon State University April 24-27 for a series of public readings, writing workshops, and a public lecture on the role of story in illness.

Sponsored by the OSU Visiting Writers’ Series, “Medicine, Writing and Humanities” is a four-day program featuring poetry, fiction and memoir. It begins Thursday, April 24, at 7:30 p.m. in the OSU Memorial Union Journey Room with a keynote lecture by one of the nation’s foremost scholars in the field of narrative medicine.

Sayantani DasGupta is the author of several widely published works, including “Her Own Medicine: A Woman’s Journey from Student to Doctor,” and “The Demon Slayers and Other Stories: Bengali Folktales.” Most recently she co-edited a volume called “Stories of Illness and Healing: Women Write Their Bodies.” She is on the faculty of Columbia University’s Division of General Pediatrics and the Program in Narrative Medicine, and teaches courses on illness narratives at Sarah Lawrence College.

On Friday, April 25, at 7:30 p.m., award-winning poet and oncologist C. Dale Young will read from his work in the Valley Library at OSU. Young, who practices medicine in San Francisco, is the author of two books of poetry, “The Day Underneath the Day” and “Second Person.” He is the poetry editor of The New England Review and BreadLoaf Quarterly. His poems have appeared in many anthologies and magazines, including Best American Poetry, Paris Review, Ploughshares, and Poetry.

Critically-acclaimed novelist and pediatrician Chris Adrian will conclude the series of evening events on Saturday April 26, at 7:30 p.m., with a fiction reading in the Valley Library. Author of the highly-praised novels “Gob’s Grief” and “The Children’s Hospital,” Adrian is known for his inventive mix of realism and the fantastic. His short fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and McSweeney’s, and has been anthologized in Best American Short Stories.

In addition to the evening presentations, there will be two weekend writing workshops. On Saturday, April 26, from 9 a.m. to noon at the OSU Center for the Humanities, Adrian will lead a small group of medical professionals in a workshop exploring various forms of fiction and nonfiction as avenues for practical reflection.

On Sunday, April 27, from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m., there will be a workshop for community members and patients, titled “Meditative Journaling: Giving Illness a Voice.” The workshop, which is free and open to the public, will be held at the Corvallis Public Library, and will be conducted by Dr. Mary Ann Wallace, director of Samaritan Health Services’ Division of Integrative Medicine. Her new book is “The Heart of Healing.”

Sponsors of “Medicine, Writing, and Humanities” include the OSU English Department/Visiting Writers Series, the Valley Library, the OSU Center for the Humanities, and the OSU Office of the Provost, with outreach co-sponsors Division of Integrative Medicine of Samaritan Health Services and the Corvallis-Benton County Library.

All evening lectures are free and open to the public. The writing workshops also are free, but require advance registration by going to http://oregonstate.edu/cla/english/medicine-writing-and-humanities.

For information, call 541-766-6793.