Six medical students at UMass Medical School have been named the winners of the 11th annual Gerald F. Berlin Prizes for Creative Writing.
The prizes were established by award-winning poet and physician Richard Berlin, MD, to encourage creative writing among medical students and residents at UMMS, and to honor his father who struggled with a severe chronic illness. Dr. Berlin, senior affiliate in psychiatry, is author of the poetry collections How JFK Killed My Father and Secret Wounds. The competition is jointly sponsored by the Offices of Student Affairs and Educational Affairs and the Humanities in Medicine Committee of the Lamar Soutter Library.
“Creative writing gives medical students a special opportunity to reflect on their experiences, to maintain their humanity and to heighten their empathy for the suffering of their patients,” said Berlin. “These are qualities that bring doctors closer to their patients, and I know these are the qualities my father always looked for and admired in his own physicians.”
First-prize winner Jeffrey Larnard received a cash prize of $100, and his winning entry will be published in both Worcester Medicine and the Berkshire Medical Journal.
The 2015 Berlin Prizes for Creative writing were awarded to:
First Prize: Jeffrey Larnard, SOM ’17, for “Outpatient primary care is dull, I thought”
Second Prize: Laurel Dezieck, SOM ’15, for “Running Shoes at Bedside”
Third Prize: Yevin Roh, SOM ’18, for “To the Cadaver at Anatomy Table Twelve”
Honorable Mentions:
Jeffrey Brady, SOM ’17, for “The Juxtaposition was striking”
Ava Chappell, SOM ’16, for “One afternoon in the Gynecological Oncology clinic”
Nicole Mushero, SOM ’15, for “Nyad”
