MFA Graduate Merges Healthcare and Creative Writing

Angelica Recierdo MFA ’26 exemplifies the power of writing to bear witness to the human experience. Through her poetry chapbook “One Last Ripe Life,” narrative medicine expertise, and health journalism, Angelica combines her healthcare background and poetic artistry to give voice to the beauty and complexities of living in an uncertain world.

Angelica’s vocations for creative writing and healthcare first merged when she was an undergraduate nursing student and her essay, “Coming Out of the Medical Closet,” was published in “The Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine.” Creative writing, especially poetry, had long been an important outlet for Angelica. In that moment, the connection between writing, the humanities, and healthcare “clicked” for her in a new way.

“My essay being published was my first introduction to the field of narrative medicine and the idea that writing and stories could improve healthcare. This was never discussed in nursing school. It immediately made sense,” Angelica commented. 

A Global Health Corp fellowship after nursing school further fueled Angelica’s interest in marrying the arts with her nursing career. While practicing as a nurse Angelica began the MS in Narrative Medicine program at Columbia University. During this time Angelica also joined “The Intima” as an editor, where she continues to work as part of a tight-knit team to produce new journal issues, serve as a poetry editor, write book reviews, and promote the journal. Angelica shared, “For me, being an editor is a way to give back to the literary community and amplify important voices that aren’t usually heard.” 

Collaborating with other clinicians, writers, and artists while completing her graduate degree in Narrative Medicine and at “The Intima” solidified Angelica’s calling to make healthcare writing her full-time career. In 2019 she became a sSenior eEditor at a news and networking site for clinicians where she curated, strategized, and wrote medical content. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the next year and lockdown began, the urge to reflect and go inward moved Angelica to deepen her poetry writing practice. 

During this time she wrote many of the poems included in her chapbook, “One Last Ripe Life”(Bottlecap Press, 2024). Described on the back cover as “love poems to children of immigrants, women, artists, and bon vivants” “One Last Ripe Life” brings readers on a vivid, transnational journey through the poignant and intimate moments of life. An avid fan of the chapbook form, Angelica commented that publishing “One Last Ripe Life” was an important milestone to encapsulate a chunk of her life and allow new writing to emerge. Having a chapbook also provides a beautiful way to share her poems within the literary community and with those unfamiliar with her poetry. 

Writing these poems propelled Angelica to transition away from the corporate world to focus on her poetry and pursue her MFA. The optional narrative medicine track in Dominican’s MFA program spoke to Angelica’s passion for writing through an embodied lens. The low-residency format also allowed her to pursue her journalism passion as a Fellow in Journalism and Health Impact at the University of Toronto. During her seven-month fellowship Angelica wrote health-related stories that ranged from traditional journalism and reportage to a memoir-style piece about being pregnant and expecting a child for the first time.

In a full-circle moment, Angelica’s essay “Coming Out of the Medical Closet” that started her on the path to health writing over a decade ago is included in the recently published anthology, “ Where it Hurts: Dispatches from the Emotional Frontlines of Medicine” (Ed. Donna Bulseco, The Experiment, 2026). About first writing this essay Angelica shares, “It was pivotal in shaping the future, to finding my voice as a writer, and bringing me to Dominican.” 

_{Story by Ma’ayan Simon (2026 MFA).}