The 15th Annual Gerald F. Berlin Prizes for Creative Writing award ceremony and readings will take place at UMass Medical School on Wednesday, May 1, from noon to 1:30 p.m. in the Blais Pavilion of the Lazare Research Building. The prizes are awarded for creative writing, prose and poetry by UMMS medical, nursing and doctoral students, residents and fellows.
The awards are sponsored by the Humanities in Medicine Committee of the Lamar Soutter Library with funding from Richard M. Berlin, MD, instructor in psychiatry. Dr. Berlin, a widely published poet and practicing psychiatrist, established the award to encourage creative writing among those studying medicine and to honor his father who struggled with a severe chronic illness.
“Creative writing gives health professionals in training a special opportunity to reflect on their experiences, to maintain their humanity and to heighten their empathy for the suffering of their patients,” Berlin said. “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 and third place winner Supreetha Gubbala, SOM ’19, will receives a cash award of $100 and publication in Worcester Medicine, The Berkshire Medical Journal and Streams of Consciousness. The second prize winner, Hillary Mullan, SOM ’21, will also have her work published in Streams of Consciousness.
Created as a School of Medicine Capstone project, Streams of Consciousness is an online publication that allow students, residents, faculty and other members of the UMass Medical School community to channel their experiences through works of poetry, prose and photography.
The nine writers receiving this year’s awards will read excerpts from their work at the award ceremony. All members of the UMMS and UMass Memorial community are invited to attend. Learn more about the Gerald F. Berlin Creative Writing Awards, and read the work of previous winners here.
First Place
Supreetha Gubbala, SOM ’19, for A Fine Balance
Second Place
Hillary Mullan, SOM ’21, for Who Said
Third Place
Supreetha Gubbala, SOM ’19, for Where Loneliness Lives
Honorable Mentions
Shivkumar Bhadola, SOM ’19 for Where We Stand
Deniz Cataltepe, SOM ’22 for Messiness of Medicine
William Coughlin, SOM ’22, for What Light is There
MaryKate Driscoll, SOM ’19, for Little Blue Earring
Kathy Niu, MD, chief resident in neuropsychiatry, for Brain or Mind
Sarah Ohnigian, SOM ’19 for The Eight Fingered Handyman
Kathy Schultz, GSN ’20, for I Arrived for My Shift
