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COUNTING BONES: ANATOMY OF LOVE LOST AND FOUND

When she was twenty-four years old, Ellen Anderson Penno lost her partner in a
climbing accident on Mount Baker in Washington’s Cascade Range.

The avalanche hid his body in a crevasse just weeks before Penno was slated to
begin medical school, and she soon found herself torn between deferring her
studies for a year, or starting right away with a full course load.

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Rather than succumbing to grief and risk never beginning her medical education
at all, Penno plunged deep into her studies, surrounded by death on all sides,
struggling to maintain her way through her turbulent emotions and a rigorous med
school schedule.

In this stirring and often funny new memoir, Ellen Anderson Penno structures a
story of mourning, loss, despair and love through the lens of the classic
medical text Gray’s Anatomy, showing readers what becomes of those who must
rebuild their lives after tragedy strikes.

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MEET THE AUTHOR


ELLEN ANDERSON PENNO

Ellen Anderson Penno is a writer and full-time medical doctor, earning an MD and
MS from the University of Minnesota, with rotating surgical internship at
Hennepin County Hospital, Minneapolis, and ophthalmology residency at the Mayo
Clinic. She moved to Canada to complete a refractive surgery fellowship with the
renowned surgeon Dr. Howard Gimbel.

She earned Graduate Certificates in Creative Writing from Humber College and
Narrative Medicine from Columbia University. She immigrated to Calgary, Alberta
in 1997 where she continues to live with her adult daughters and dog pal Ed. Her
memoir Counting Bones will be released in 2024.

Dr. Penno has written books on PRK, LASIK and refractive surgery that have been
used as a reference for other laser eye surgeons around the world.



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BOOK REVIEWS

“Counting Bones is a book about grief told not obliquely, but head-on. With
truth steady at her side and earth-anchored clarity, Anderson Penno masters the
fine line between self-pity and self-glorification as she traces grief's path:
the initial strike of near annihilating power, then its expansion to permeate
all aspects of one's life before it begins to slowly, not lessen, but to
shapeshift, transforming both itself and the writer. But Counting Bones is also
a good story, a coming-of-age chronicle that will hold its readers as they
marvel over the courage and resilience of an indefatigable, multi-gifted young
woman.”
‍
— Sharon Butala, award winning author of Leaving Wisdom and Where I Live Now
“Counting Bones begins as a tale of a college romance rich with hiking, mountain
climbing, skiing and the special sensation that comes from finding a soulmate
for the first time but shifts into a complex tale of grief as a life-long
visitor. The author loses her beloved to an avalanche on Mt. Baker in Washington
just as she’s finishing college and starting medical school. Her memoir reads
like a symphony—an “Ode to Grief” instead of joy, but just as nuanced and
beautiful. “Ian and Ian’s death are like two different people,” she reflects, as
the reader follows her through her complex reaction to the sudden trauma even as
she faces the medical training required to handle trauma in others. If you loved
Joan Didion’s Year of Magical Thinking, buy this book.”
‍
— Mary Collins, author of At the Broken Places: A Mother and Trans Son Pick Up
the Pieces (Beacon Press)
“Ellen Anderson Penno’s memoir is an anatomy of precision and procedural beauty.
Counting Bones takes the reader on a sure and steady climb, unexpected descent
into loss, and through an ill-timed academic crucible. Anderson Penno pairs the
rhythm and language of rock climbing with the nomenclative framework of Gray’s
Anatomy. In an introspective writing style that juxtaposes the creative with
memoir Anderson Penno manages, in unexpected moments, to belay time, depart from
the quantitative, and bring to light poetic concerns of the broken hearted.”
‍
— Darcy Tamayose, award winning author of Ezra’s Ghosts


CONTACT DR. PENNO

Interested in having Dr. Penno speak at your event? Fill out the form below to
learn more information!




CREATIVE WRITING

Ode To Cursive - Mixed media poem, Pank Magazine issue 15, 2022
The Things That Haunt Us - Short non-fictioin, Bodega Mag Online, 2020
Poetic Thoughts from an Alberta Doctor - Poem, Alberta Doctors’ Digest, May -
June 2023


OTHER PUBLICATIONS

LASIK Complications: Trends and Techniques
(also published in Japanese and Spanish language)
Laser Vision Correction: What You Need To Know
Refractive Surgery: A Manual of Principles and Practice
Surface Ablation: Techniques for Optimum Results