Poetry Takes the Stage at NEOMED
May 2, 2022
A way to process feelings – including the “wild and crazy” feelings that can overpower a medical student: That’s how one winner of the William Carlos Williams Poetry Competition views poetry.
The competition encourages medicine students across the nation (Canada and Puerto Rico, too!) to express themselves. Named for the American family physician-poet from Rutherford, New Jersey, it has thrived, each year bringing the top three winners and a guest speaker to NEOMED. The competition marked its 40th year at the annual awards ceremony held in Watanakunakorn Auditorium April 22.
Guest Martin Kohn, Ph.D., who started the contest — joined shortly thereafter by Professor Emeritus Delese Wear, Ph.D., — spoke warmly at the April 22 event of the early years. (In an article published in the Journal of Medical Humanities in 2005, Dr. Kohn recounts that history.)
Keynote speaker M.K. Czerwiec, above, spoke of how experiences working in health care at the beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic led her to begin sketching comics and breaking ground in the new graphic medicine field.
Watch the video of Thomas Nguyen, Amelia Khoo and Anneka Johnston reading their prize-winning poems.
Watch for the upcoming Spring 2022 issue of Ignite for more on the competition.
From left in the top photo: Keynote speaker M.K. Czerwiec; third-place winner Anneka Johnston; first-place winner Thomas Nguyen; second-place winner Amelia Khoo; and Rachel Bracken, Ph.D., assistant professor of family and community medicine.