Background: Kidney transplantation is the best treatment for kidney failure but is associated with medical, psychological, and existential challenges for patients. Patients’ experiential knowledge can help other patients facing these challenges. Patients’ self-narratives and creative writings are ways to operationalize this experiential knowledge. Creative writing has been described as a therapeutic tool for patients with chronic disease. Over the past year, we conducted creative writing workshops with kidney transplant recipients (KTRs), living kidney donors (LKDs), kidney transplant candidates (KTCs), and professional writers. During these workshops, patients were invited to explore different aspects of their experiences of their transplant or donation journey through narrative-writing, poetry, comic art, and screenwriting. Objective: The objectives of this study were to gather the perspectives of KTRs, KTCs, and LKDs on the role of patients’ self-narratives and creative writing, and to collect patients’ experiences of the creative writing workshops. Design: Focus groups and individual interviews. Setting: The Center hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM) kidney transplant program. Participants: KTRs, LKDs, and KTCs attending the CHUM kidney transplant clinic between February 2020 and January 2021. Methods: We conducted 2 focus groups and 8 semi-structured individual interviews with 7 KTRs, 8 LKDs, and 5 KTCs from the CHUM between June and November 2020, before the creative writing workshops. We also conducted 10 semi-structured interviews with 5 KTRs, 1 KTC, and 4 LKDs in March 2021, after their participation in the creative writing workshops. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. Thematic and content analyses were conducted. Results: KTRs, LKDs, and KTCs had multiple significant moments to share from their transplant/donation journey. These moments were highly emotional and marked by uncertainty. The creative writing workshops were described as therapeutic by participants, because they offered a safe space for group-facilitated reflection, including a discovery and learning process, and normalization, relativization, and appreciation of the transplant/donation experience. The creative writing workshops also provided an opportunity to give back to others (helping other patients, promoting kidney donation and continuing this process in the future through the web platform). Limitations: Our participants came from a single French-speaking urban transplant center in Quebec and were highly educated. Conclusion: The study set out to capture the perspectives of KTRs, LKDs, and KTCs through the sharing of self-narratives and their participation in creative writing workshops related to their transplant or donation journey. A website was set up to publish patients’ creative writings ( https://recitsdudonetdelavie.lorganon.ca/les-recits/ ). Further study is needed to assess the website’s impact on other patients. Trial registration: Not registered.

Dans Thelma, Louise et moi (2019), un livre inclassable de Martine Delvaux qui voyage entre l’essai et le récit, est explorée une forme singulière de filiation féministe entre la narratrice et les personnages du célèbre film scénarisé par Callie Khouri. Comment penser la présence insaisissable des personnages du film pour la narratrice, elle qui dans son écriture suit le film et tente de prendre une place dans la Thunderbird ? Comment s’inscrire dans une filiation féminine et féministe, après le « saut dans le vide » qui vient sceller la sororité des protagonistes ? Cet article s’attachera à montrer comment Thelma et Louise sont constituées, dans Thelma, Louise et moi, en tant que compagnes de voyage de l’écriture d’abord, puis compagnes spectrales dans le sillage duquel peut avancer la narratrice.

son dos autoras que, habiendo definido su lugar en el panorama literario -el del quebequés contemporáneo para la primera y el del punk estadounidense de los 80 para la segunda -, comparten, entre otras temáticas similares, una reflexión sobre la identidad y más específicamente sobre la identidad de género, tal y como esta ha sido creada por el lenguaje. Y, si bien se constata que cada una está hecha, de la misma forma, por el discurso, su obra no se queda atrás, de principio a fin, singular. Este texto se interroga sobre la construcción de una identidad fluida, variable, siempre reinterpretada, tal y como podemos leerla en las novelas de Kathy Acker, comparándola al mismo tiempo con la identidad anclada en las palabras, así como con la imponente coherencia de estas, de la narrativa de Nelly Arcan. ¿Cómo plantear la relación de cada escritora con el concepto de identidad tal y como esta reside en sus personajes, vacíos pero saturados a la vez por el lenguaje?

RésuméNelly Arcan et Kathy Acker, deux auteures ayant marqué leur milieu littéraire -celui québécois contemporain pour l'une, celui punk américain des années 80 pour l'autre -partagent entre autres thé-matiques similaires, une réflexion sur l'identité, et plus spécifiquement sur l'identité de genre, telle qu'elle est créée par le langage. Si chacune se constate pareillement faite par le discours, leur oeuvre n'en est pas moins, de l'une à l'autre, singulière. Ce texte s'interroge sur la construction d'une identité fluide, variable, toujours réinterprétée, telle qu'elle peut se lire dans les romans de Kathy Acker, en la comparant à l'identité figée dans les mots et leur cohérence écrasante des récits de Nelly Arcan. Comment penser le rapport à l'identité chez chacune, telle que mise en scène dans des personnages à la fois vidés et saturés par le langage ? AbstractNelly Arcan and Kathy Acker, two major writers of their own literary community -present day's Quebec for one, eighties' american punk scene for the other -share, in addition to many similar thematics, a reflexion on identity, and more specifically on gender identity, such as it is created by the language. If both are postulating an « I » made by the discourse, each one shows a quite singular way to translate it in words. This essay is an interrogation on the construction of a fluid and always reinterpreted identity in Kathy Acker's work, comparing it to a fixed identity, stuck in the coherence of its own discourses, as it can be found in the writings of Nelly Arcan. How can we think the relation to « I » in the texts of each author, who are both staging characters emptied and paradoxically saturated by the language?

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