Abbreviated Bibliography

Overview of a career in writing:

Ron Charach is a poet and essayist and man of letters. He has had dozens of lead-off letters, photo-illustrated letters and occasional pieces humor published in all three national newspapers, as well as in The Medical Post, where he hosted a column on poetry by physicians for 16 years, and many humorous essays in the medical magazine Stitches. He has also published drawings, cartoons and photographs in literary magazines. He has published in most major Canadian literary journals, especially frequently in Descant, The Fiddlehead, Matrix, Prism, Prairie Fire, CV 2, Arc and The Malahat Review. His poems have appeared in numerous anthologies, including the world physician poetry anthologies Blood & Bone and Primary Care published by the University of Iowa Press, (1997 and 2006).

Ron Charach has had numerous poems on medical themes published in international journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine and the United Kingdom's, The Lancet, which ran a Lifeline feature on him in their Dissection Room literary section, May 30, 1998. The Medical Post ran their feature profile on him, "What Rhymes with Angioplasty?" on Dec 1, 1998. Ron Charach is a practicing psychiatrist, trained in child and adolescent psychiatry. In 2003 he was awarded the Canadian Jewish Book Award for poetry. His psychiatry-related publications and lectures and hospital grand rounds on creativity will not be listed here.

Books: Poetry

• The Big Life Painting, 1986, Kingston: Quarry Press ISBN 0-919627-48x
• Someone Else's Memoirs, 1989, Kingston: Quarry Press ISBN 1-55082-105-9
• The Naked Physician (contrib. Ed., anthology), 1990, Quarry Press ISBN 0-919627-77-3
• Past Wildflowers, 1994, Quarry Press, ISBN 1-55082-197-0
• Petrushkin!, 1999, 2000, Victoria: Ekstasis Editions, ISBN 1-896860-48-6
• Dungenessque, 2002, Winnipeg: Signature Editions, ISBN 0-921833-76-8
• Elephant Street, 2003, Winnipeg: Signature Editions, ISBN 0-921833-89-x
• Selected Portraits, 2007, Hamilton: Wolsak and Wynn
• Forgetting the Holocaust, Forthcoming in 2010, Frontenac Books

Books: Non-fiction

• Cowboys & Bleeding Hearts: Essays on violence, Health and Identity, 2009, Hamilton: Wolsak and Wynn

Essays

For The Toronto Star, Sunday IDEAS section:
• "Borat's inner Jew," Nov 12, 2006
• "Shame, rage and Middle East violence," Sept 17, 2006
• "Why springtime can suck," April 2, 2006
• "Love, Death and Old Men," (Valentine's Day reflection), Feb 12, 2006
• "Don't call me White," Aug 21, 2005
• "Guns, lethality and the Big Lie," July 31, 2005

Opinion, The Toronto Star (op.ed)
• "Arming border guards a prickly issue," Feb 2, 2006

For Canadian Jewish News
• Essay "Borat's Jewish Problem," Nov 30, 2006

For The Medical Post
• "Enjoying the gentle life in Portugal," Aug 9, 2005
• "Death at arm's length," June 1, 2004
• "Can Lassie afford to get medical help?" Sept 10, 2002
• "The value of balance," Sept 11, 2001
• "Simply the best," May 1, 2001

For The Globe & Mail, Books section:
• Three for Thought essays:
• "Self? Help!" review of the best self-help books, Aug 21, 2004
• "Materia Medica," review of best writing by physicians, June 5, 2004
• "Reading the Lines," essay on caricature, Sept 27, 2003

How Poetry Works essays, Books, Globe & Mail
• "A Lone Man's Night," essay on poem by Yannis Ritsos, Dec 28, 2002
• "Crab," essay on poem by Ken Babstock, April 7, 2001
• "Crustaceans," essay on poem by Roy Fuller, June 2, 2001

Book Reviews:
• "Getting down and dirty," review of Vernon God Little, Dec 6, 2003
• Review of The Case of Dr. Sacks, Books, Globe & Mail,

Essay (Globe and Mail)
• "I can't quite place the face," (on being good with names), March 10, 2001

In Ars Medica magazine:
• Short story: "The Middle Ages," spring 2006
• Satirical essay: "Kids, guns & Plagiarism," Fall 2004 Vol. 1, No. 1



Ron Charach's works copyright © to the author.