As we end our 2012 publication cycle, we are delighted to honor the winners of the annual William Carlos Williams Poetry Medical Student Competition and to share their verse. They are:

  • Sarah Andersen who is a first-year medical student at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Sarah is a fervent believer in the necessity of the humanities to the very human practice of medicine. Her previous poems have appeared in The Claremont Review and Wordscapes. Her poem, “In August we drove up the blunt mountains to Dawson City,” placed first in this year’s competition.

  • Emily Sorg who is in her second year of medical school at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York where she leads a creative writing workshop for medical students that she founded as a first-year. A graduate of Brown University, Emily studied creative writing and served as Editor-in-Chief of The Catalyst, a literary journal devoted to bridging the gap between science and the humanities. Her poem, “Good Dog,” placed second.

  • Daniel Grosser who is now a third-year medical student at Northeast Ohio Medical University, the home of this poetry competition for 30 years. Daniel became interested in poetry when he discovered the musicality of Edgar Allan Poe in high school. He later became aware of the connection between poetry and medicine through the writing of William Carlos Williams. His poem, “Because You’re Supposed To,” placed third.

On behalf of the editorial board of JMH, I congratulate these poets and future physicians, and we look forward to publishing and reading their work in future issues.

Therese Jones, Editor