As we end our 2015 publication cycle, we are delighted to honor the winners of the annual William Carlos Williams Poetry Medical Student Competition and to share their verse in this issue of the journal. They are:

  • Chris Yan who is a fourth-year medical student at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Chris has been writing since high school and has recently been focused on publishing some of his work. He completed a year-long fellowship in medical humanities with Dr. Ruth Berggren at the Center for Medical Humanities and Ethics, working on various research projects and attending the Iowa Writers’ Workshop summer program. He is currently applying for residency in internal medicine. His poem, “Chess from my Father,” placed first in this year’s competition.

  • Christopher Carr who is a second-year MD/MPH student at Tulane. Before deciding to (also) pursue a career in medicine, he worked as a writer and translator. He is currently working on a series of creative non-fiction essays about medical education. His poem, “When I first encountered the pit of an avocado,” placed second in the competition.

  • Dawling A. Dionisio-Santos who is an MD/PhD student at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. He is beginning the first year of a Neuroscience Graduate Program and finds the profession of medicine very rewarding. He especially enjoys hearing the stories that patients bring into the office and likes being present for them when they are most vulnerable. He writes that “poetry has been my way of condensing the emotions created by these stories as well as those that arise from the events in my own life,” and his poem, “The Flying Bus,” placed third.

In addition to the poetry of the three medical student winners, we are also delighted to feature the creative and scholarly work of several other students in this issue. For several years, Dr. David Hellerstein has taught a writing workshop, “The City of the Hospital,” at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Here he shares some of the most poignant and powerful works produced by medical students for that class. Sam Scharff, currently a fifth-year MD/PhD student at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, is the creator of a blog, Sketches & Sutures, where he uploads his art and writing. Through responses to his work, Sam writes about discovering how many medical students also experience similar challenges, including problems of doubt, identity and mental health. Finally, included in this issue is an important and timely discussion of the impact of gallows humor on medical students by a current doctoral candidate in medical humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Nicole Piemonte.

On behalf of the editorial board of JMH, I congratulate all of these young colleagues. We look forward to publishing and reading their work in future issues.