This beautiful and sensitive book explores how people trapped in chronic illness or recovering from a catastrophic accident learn strategies of coping and healing. Here, "recovery" doesn't necessarily mean the condition disappears, but that recovery is a complex process, an act of the imagination that requires sufferers to redefine and rediscover themselves in light of the changes their health brings.The writers in this inspired collection examine their illnesses in the context of their lives, sharing personal stories about how illness affects marriage, family relationships, lifestyle, and the creative process. The Healing Circle is about the psychology, not just the physiology of recovery--what it means to be ill, what it means to be well, and what can be learned from the process of healing. Anyone facing a serious illness will value the insights found in this special book. • Features essays from literary heavyweights including Jane Smiley, National Book Award nominee Dennis Covington, Linda Hogan, and journalist Andrew Sullivan. • Patricia Foster and Mary Swander are both are graduates of the renowned Iowa Writers' Workshop. • Several successful books on illnesses, such as New York Times bestsellers An Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfield Jamison and Drinking by Caroline Knapp, Lucy Grealy's Autobiography of a Face; Girl Interrupted by Susan Kaysen, and countless others prove there is a significant market for books in this category.