From his impoverished childhood on the Oneida reservation, to medical school, to Rwanda, Kosovo, and Iraq, from soldier to doctor, from healer to patient, Dr. Jon Kerstetter’s award-winning memoir, Crossings, a Doctor-Soldier’s Story, records his life journey and the many boundaries and obstacles he has crossed. The Adams State University English Department will host a reading with Kerstetter at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 26, in the Nielsen Library Cooper Room. The event is free and open to the public.
Kerstetter’s memoir about saving lives during three tours of duty in Iraq, about overcoming stroke and PTSD, is a remarkable and beautifully wrought narrative that explores the needs for compassion and hope, and the core of one’s self-identity.
Kerstetter received his medical degree from the Mayo Medical School in Rochester, Minnesota and his MFA degree from Ashland University in Ohio. He practiced emergency medicine and military medicine, serving as a combat physician and flight surgeon for the US Army National Guard and completing three combat tours in Iraq. He has also taught disaster relief and practiced emergency medicine in Kosovo, Bosnia, Rwanda, and Honduras.
For more information about the reading call the Adams State English Department at 719-587-7862.