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May 16, 2026
Special guest appearance with author Sarah Singer
Saturday, May 16, 2026, 10:30 am – 12:30 pm
The Patient Empowerment Paradox: Lyme Disease Rhetoric and Contested Health Literacies
By Sarah Singer
Author Sarah Singer will be in the store signing books and visiting with customers on Saturday, June 13, 2026.
About the Author:
Sarah Ann Singer is associate professor of English at the University of Central Florida. She has published articles in journals, including College English and Rhetoric of Health and Medicine.
About the Book:
How chronic Lyme sheds new light on the rhetorical problem of patient empowerment
Modern medicine asks patients to be informed and empowered partners in their own care. However, when this care system fails to provide answers, many individuals with chronic and contested illnesses use these same skills of research and advocacy to take matters into their own hands. They seek treatment from providers who confirm their self-diagnoses while touting cures of variable safety and efficacy. Sarah Ann Singer terms this dynamic the patient empowerment paradox.
In The Patient Empowerment Paradox, Singer analyzes published narratives, interviews, healthcare provider websites, and a patient data bank, as well as her own experience as a patient, to reveal how individuals become entangled in medical debates, misinformation, and decision fatigue. For Lyme researchers and scholars of other chronic and contested illnesses, she provides a framework to better understand the rhetoric of medical uncertainty and pave the way for improved patient outcomes.
Nia Imani at The Bookhouse
100 Things to do in Winston-Salem Before You Die
Jeffrey L. Smith received a BA degree in Public Administration from Elon University. In 1986 he returned to
Paul is a Winston-Salem native, a graduate of R.J. Reynolds High School and Wake Forest University, where he got his first taste of the media as an announcer for the student-run station, WAKE Radio. He has earned advanced degrees in liberal arts and journalism/mass communications from Johns Hopkins University and UNC-Chapel Hill. Paul has worked as a journalist for 30 years. Locally he has worked for The High Point Enterprise, the News & Record of Greensboro and the Winston-Salem Journal. Paul has been affiliated with 88.5 FM WFDD, public radio for the Piedmont and High Country, for the last 10 years. He also currently serves as an adjunct professor of the practice in Journalism at Wake Forest University.