R.E. Hengsterman

R.E. Hengsterman is a registered nurse, a Pushcart Prize-nominated, award-winning fiction and non-fiction writer, and an educator with over thirty years of healthcare experience. Coming from a place that combines the clinical and the imaginative, his writings have appeared in more than fifty publications, including Across the Margin, Maudlin House, Bluntly Magazine, Eunoia Review, Queen Mob’s Tea House, Barren Magazine, Riggwelter, Phenomenal Literature, Former Cactus, The Airgonaut and The Blotter Magazine.

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As a writer that navigates the fine line between storytelling and science, he brings empathy to the facts and story to the data.

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Award-winning The Shift Worker’s Paradox is a work of narrative nonfiction that mingles science, the life experiences of its author, and no-nonsense advice to investigate the less obvious expenses of life against the clock. Well-known for bridging the divide between healthcare and storytelling, his writing has helped to raise empathy and understanding in the clinical world. At Nurse Who Writes, he also works to merge science and narrative to clear up and calm the waters of healthcare, and enhance patient care, and also self-reflection for healthcare workers and writers alike.

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He holds a master’s degree in nursing education (MSN), Innovation, Leadership, and Entrepreneurship (M.E.), and the arts (MA). Inspired by Denis Johnson, Mohsin Hamid, and Alice Walker, his fiction aims for the heart, and his nonfiction works pursue mental clarity. He lives in North Carolina, splitting his time between research, storytelling and working the night shift.