Sharon Bray, author and educator, is a San Diego-based writer best known for her innovative work in therapeutic writing with cancer survivors whose voices have been silenced by pain, illness or loss, an endeavor she began over a decade ago. Her two recent books, When Words Heal: Writing Through Cancer (North Atlantic/Frog Books, 2006) and A Healing Journey: Writing Together through Breast Cancer (Amherst Writers & Artists Press, 2004) document the healing power of writing. In 2007, together with Pat Fobair, LCSW, she co-edited an anthology of cancer patients' writing, Learning to Live Again, published by the Stanford School of Medicine.
A native Californian, Sharon completed her B.A. and a year of graduate study at San Jose State University before moving to Canada, where she lived and worked in Canada for twenty-three years, ultimately completing her doctoral degree at the University of Toronto. She also studied creative writing and literary fiction at Humber School for Writers in Toronto, transformative language arts at Goddard College and literary fiction at University of Washington extension's Writers' Program.
Her first book (a children's book), This Way to Canada, was written as a young mother in Nova Scotia. Sharon has since written and published poetry, memoir and personal essays. Her work has appeared in Moxie Magazine, Looking Back: Stories of our Mothers and Fathers in Retrospect, The Santa Clara Weekly,The Art of Grandparenting,Coping with Cancer Magazine, Goddard's Semester Magazine,The Listener & the Storyteller Online, and The Transformative Language Arts Reader, and on the DVD, Writing Alone and With Others, among others. In 2007, she began a weekly blog of inspirational writing prompts for anyone dealing with cancer or debilitating illness, that now has subscribers from around the world. (www.writingthroughcancer.com).
Over the years, Sharon has presented her work at healthcare symposia, including CURE Magazine conferences, The Society for Arts in Healthcare and several cancer centers across the country, including a unique collaboration South Carolina artist, Heidi Darr-Hope. (For more information about her speaking engagements, click here). She continues to lead ongoing expressive writingworkshops for men & women living with cancer at Scripps Green Cancer Center in La Jolla, CA and Stanford Cancer Center in Palo Alto, CA.
Sharon also leads The Writers'Workshop at Stanford Medical School, a creative writing workshop series for medical school faculty, students and alumni. She has been a faculty member of the UCLA extension Writers' Program since 2007, where she teaches creative nonfiction. Each summer, she conducts a week-long intensive course, "Writing as a Healing Ministry," at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, CA.
She is a member of The Society for Arts in Healthcare, National Association of Poetry Therapy, Transformative Language Arts Network, and the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association.
Sharon speaking at the CAHM Forum for Healthy Minds
Sharon A. Bray, Ed.D., copyright 2011, all rights reserved. This site best viewed on Internet Explorer v. 6 or higher
