Some stories are imagined. Others are lived. And the most powerful ones often sit somewhere in between.
In Episode 6 of The Miami Book Hub, I had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Jasmine B. Nguyen-Sandoval—nurse, author, publisher, and community builder—whose work exists at that intersection. By day, Jasmine works in high-intensity areas of healthcare, such as oncology and neonatal intensive care, where the stakes are as real as they come. By night, she writes, drawing from those experiences to shape stories that resonate far beyond the hospital setting.
“There’s so much that happens… behind the four sterile walls of a hospital that needs to be shared,” she said.
That impulse became the foundation of her writing. Her medical thrillers take real-world moments and transform them into narrative, blending authenticity with imagination in a way that feels both compelling and deeply human. But what makes her work especially meaningful is not just what she writes, it’s what she is building around it.
Like many writers, myself included, Jasmine began without a formal path. No creative writing background. No clear roadmap. Just a desire to tell stories and a willingness to learn. What changed everything was finding community.
“You feel isolated if you choose to isolate yourself,” she said. “I was yearning for that community… that understands exactly what I’m going through.”
She found that community through the South Florida Writers Association, a group that has become an important anchor for many emerging writers in our region. The experience reflects something broader about Miami’s literary scene: it is not defined by gatekeeping, but by openness. Writers supporting writers. Ideas shared, not guarded. Jasmine has taken that ethos and extended it outward.
Her latest project, Tales from the Bedside, is a powerful example. The anthology brings together 63 voices—patients, caregivers, and clinicians—from around the world, each offering a different perspective on illness, healing, and the human experience that surrounds both.
“Each has a completely different perspective,” she explained. And by placing those perspectives side by side, the collection does something important: it reminds us that no experience exists in isolation, even when it feels that way.
One of her own contributions, a piece titled The Verb, captures that reality with striking clarity. In it, illness is not static… it acts, disrupts, reshapes. “Cancer… a noun that behaved like a verb. A doer.” It’s a line that lingers because it reframes something familiar in a way that feels newly understood.
Equally important is how the book came to life. Through her imprint, Code Blue Publishing, Jasmine is creating opportunities for other writers to be seen and heard. The anthology itself grew out of more than 100 submissions, carefully curated into a collection that reflects both diversity of experience and shared humanity. And the effort doesn’t stop at publication.
Through events like “Ink & Impact,” she is creating physical spaces for writers and readers to connect… smaller, more intimate gatherings that prioritize conversation over spectacle and community over scale. In a city often defined by its major events, there is something refreshing about that approach.
It speaks to a deeper truth: culture is not built only on big stages. It is built in rooms where people show up, share their work and support one another.
Jasmine embodies that mindset. While navigating the realities and challenges of publishing—from querying agents to exploring independent paths—she is also developing tools for others, including her first published book, The Writer’s Rx, a compact resource guide designed to help writers bring greater emotional depth to their work. It is, in many ways, writing as both craft and care.
And that may be the most compelling takeaway from our conversation. Stories are not just a form of expression. They are a form of connection. They allow us to step into experiences we have not lived, to better understand those we have, and to find common ground in places we might not expect.
Miami is incredibly fortunate to have voices like Jasmine’s emerging within its literary ecosystem. Through her work—as a nurse, writer and community builder—she is not only telling stories, but creating the spaces where others can share theirs.
And in doing so, she reminds us that the most meaningful communities aren’t simply built, they are gathered, one story at a time.
I encourage you to learn more about Dr. Jasmine B. Nguyen-Sandoval and her works at TheWritersRx.com and CodeBluePublishing.com.
To view this full interview and other episodes of The Miami Book Hub visit my YouTube channel at YouTube.com/@J.AdrianBetancourt.
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