Background
Mates, Susan Onthank was born on August 8, 1950 in Oakland, California, United States. Daughter of Benson and Lois (Onthank) Mates.
(Many of Mates' characters have experienced some sort of c...)
Many of Mates' characters have experienced some sort of cultural dislocation. In "Theng," refugees from Cambodia living in Providence, Rhode Island, struggle to maintain their dignity in the face of despair and the bittersweet memories of their former home. In "Shambalileh, " a Persian woman unable to have children with her American husband, is forced to reexamine her status both as wife and as foreigner. Unifying these incredibly diverse stories is the brave honesty with which the characters confront the tenuousness of their situations. For the most part, they share the tenacity of the woman in "Shambalileh, " who "with great caution ... began to imagine the rest of her life." The central characters in several stories are doctors, whose candid explorations of the vast moral implications of medical practice make of their lives a sort of psychic battleground between good and evil. In "The Good Doctor," a doctor torn between her dedication to medicine and her own requirements as a human being - what many of us might call her weaknesses - arrives at an intriguing conclusion. An intern in "Ambulance" risks her own well-being to save the life of a victim of gang violence. The twelve stories in this collection are powerful and durable. The debate between good and evil is so intense that the daily experiences of Mates; characters, transformed and reorganized, become psychic quests. Mates takes us back to the fundamental question that is the fountainhead of all serious fiction: how should we live?
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physician violinist writer medical educator
Mates, Susan Onthank was born on August 8, 1950 in Oakland, California, United States. Daughter of Benson and Lois (Onthank) Mates.
Student, Juilliard School Music, 1967-1969; Bachelor magna cum laude with distinction, Yale College, 1972; Doctor of Medicine, Albert Einstein College Medicine, 1976.
Intern, Boston City Hospital, 1976-1977; fellow in general medicine, College of Physicians and Surgeons-Columbia University, New York City, 1977-1978; resident/fellow in infectious diseases, Montefiore Hospital, Bronx, 1978-1982; assistant professor medicine, Brown U., Providence, 1982-1985; assistant professor biochemistry, Brown U., Providence, 1985-1986; clinical associate professor medicine, Brown U., Providence, 1993-1998; staff member, former director Rhode Island State Tuberculosis Clinic,, Rhode Island Department Health, Providence, 1986-1996; consultant Tuberculosis program, Rhode Island Department Health, Providence, 1987-1996. Judge short story contest Providence Journal, 1994, 98. Contributing editor Pushcart Prize, Pushcart Press, 1995, 96, 97, 98.
(Many of Mates' characters have experienced some sort of c...)
Member American Medical Women's Association, Poets and Writers, Alpha Omega Alpha.
Married Joseph Harold Friedman, December 10, 1978. Children: Rebecca, Deborah, William.