As we end our 2016 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:

  • Ileana Horattas who is a third-year medical student at the Northeast Ohio Medical University in Rootstown, Ohio. She has been a lifelong resident of northeast Ohio, and her family is very involved in medicine. Because of this, she has always been comfortable with the meshing of medicine with other aspects of life--particularly in her writing. Though she began writing at a young age and had her first poem published at twelve, she only recently rediscovered writing in medical school as an emotional outlet and tool for personal reflection. Ileana’s poem, "The Lilacs,” placed first in this year’s competition.

  • Phoebe Prioleau is a fourth-year MD/MPH student at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She has been passionate about reading and writing poetry since high school and attended Stanford University, majoring in French and German Literature with a minor in Art History. She then pursued an M.A. and M.Phil. in Art History at Columbia University before beginning medical training. Her poetry has appeared in Hanging Loose, Journal of General Internal Medicine, The New Physician, and the anthology, Shooting the Rat. Her poem, “Totentanz,” also placed first this year.

  • Catherine Tran is a fourth-year medical student at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Born to a physician and an engineer, she tried to escape her scientific heritage by studying the humanities and exploring creative writing in college. She eventually followed in her father's footsteps and now writes as a means of exploring the intersection between medicine, arts, and our lived experiences. Her poem, “They Buried Him in California,” placed second in the competition.

  • Jennifer Hu is a third-year medical student at the University of Rochester School of Medicine. For her, writing and medicine provide ways to explore all aspects of the human condition. She is the co-founder and former co-editor-in-chief of murmur, her medical school's literary magazine. Her poem, “Burying Ground,” placed third.

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.