With deep humility and gratitude I’m excited to share this news with a letter from my publisher and friend, Shelly Francis, of Creative Courage Press:

Dear Friends and Fans of Mukta,

Please put your hands together to help us celebrate!

Resilient Threads: Weaving Joy and Meaning into Well-Being by Dr. Mukta Panda has won a 2020 Nautilus Book Award, specifically a Silver award in the memoir category. For new readers who might not know, Mukta Panda, MD, is professor and assistant dean for Well-Being and Medical Student Education in the University of Tennessee Health Science Center’s College of Medicine Chattanooga.

The Nautilus awards are given to print books of exceptional merit that make a literary and heartfelt contribution to spiritual growth, high-level wellness, responsible leadership and positive social change & social justice, as well as to the worlds of art, creativity and inspiration.

A champion of soul-deep, system-wide self-care

Her memoir was released in early 2020—just as the COVID pandemic began. It is the first book for Creative Courage Press. The award is a testament to the relevance of Mukta’s journey in a year when we all became more aware of the sacrifices physicians make to their own well-being to care for their patients, families and friends—and then themselves.

Resilient Threads is an inspiring and instructional story of an academic physician, a mother, and an immigrant from India, and how she has contributed to humanism in healthcare and medical graduate education. By weaving stories of connecting to her patients, students, and colleagues with her own stories of belonging, she models how we can each thrive by creating community and self-awareness.

Midwest Book Review offered this endorsement, “A ‘must read’ for anyone working in the health care community, especially during the once-in-a-century impact of a global pandemic, “Resilient Threads: Weaving Joy and Meaning into Well-Being” will have great value for readers in other stress-filled occupations and circumstances as well. Thoroughly ‘reader friendly’ in organization and presentation, “Resilient Threads” is especially and unreservedly recommended for both community and college/university library Health & Medicine collections.[…]”

A Meaningful Gift for Graduating Med Students

Dr. Panda is also co-author of a new Oath to Self-Care and Well-Being that supplements the Hippocratic Oath. Mukta will be leading the University of Tennessee College of Medicine graduates in pledging their Hippocratic Oath aloud at the May 19 graduation ceremony (in person!), and they will all receive a laminated copy of the Oath to Self-Care to keep in their white coats.

Resilient Threads is available through your favorite bookseller — and with a balance of chutzpah and humility, I’d like to say that it would make a wonderful gift for graduation medical students, residents and fellows this time of year!

Please consider requesting your local library to buy a copy, especially if you live near university with a medical school and teaching hospital. It’s available as a hardcover, paperback or ebook. Thank you!!!

Learn more about Resilient Threads and find buy-links at www.MuktaPandaMD.com or www.CreativeCouragePress.com. For more about the Nautilus book awards, visit www.nautilusbookawards.com. Download the Press Release here.

Resilient Reflections

Resilient Threads wins Nautilus Book Award