The annual William Carlos Williams Poetry competition
Celebrating medical-student poets for four decades
2025
Student Winners
First place: “And the doctor said,” Makeen Yasar (M2, Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles)
Second place: “self-portrait by way of erosion,” Eillen Martinez (M1, Columbia University in New York City)
Third place: “Ossified,” Sara Khan (M1, Northeast Ohio Medical University in Rootstown, OH)
Honorable Mention: “To my child, if you will ever be,” Anushka Shah (M3, Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University in Philadelphia)
Physician Winners*
First place: “Pelvic Inlet,” Megana Dwarakanath, M.D.
Second place: “Rejection,” Sarah Kristin Andersen, M.D., M.Sc.
Third place: “Elegy for fullness with a cow,” Kate Kernan, MD
Honorable Mention: “Autumn at the Beach,” Michael Wynn, D.O., FAAN
* new category in 2025
2024
First place: Jude Okonkwo, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, “Escape!”
Second place: Liz Irvin, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, “Pathophysiology.”
Third place: Maya J. Sorini, Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, “Memory Remains Blood Soluble.”
Read more about our 2024 winners.
2023
First place: Brian Zhao, Brown University, “Resection”
Second place: Bessie Liu, Johns Hopkins University, “After The Surgery”
Third place: Sarah Phillips, Eastern Virginia Medical School, “Grief Grows Here”
Read more about our 2023 winners.
2022
First place: Thomas Nguyen, Texas A&M University College of Medicine, “Here the Light is Always Fading”
Second place: Amelia Khoo, Texas A&M College of Medicine, “Bright”
Third place: Anneka Johnston, Loyola’s Stritch School of Medicine, “CNA Clinicals Day #3”
Read more about the 2022 winners and their winning entries
2021
First place: Steven Pan, Weill Cornell Medicine, “Mass Effect”
Second place: Dana Vigue, Harvard Medical School, “Water”
Third place: Soo Hyun Choi, Tulane University School of Medicine, “Satsuma”
2020
First place: Joey Lew, University of California, San Francisco, “On an Organ Donation Run”
Second place: Ellen Zhang, Harvard Medical School, “Before Chemotherapy”
Third place: Wesley Chou, Harvard Medical School, “The Old Man”
2019
First place: Sophia Gorgens, Emory University School of Medicine, “Pemphigus Vulgaris”
Second place: Kaveh Danesh, University of California, San Francisco, “Triage of Two Cultures”
Third place: Nikita Raman, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, “The night the Queens sky exploded”
2018
First place: Sean McEvoy, University of Arizona College of Medicine, Tucson, “When I Saw the Table”
Second place: Adam Lalley, Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine, Hofstra/Northwell, “Hematopoiesis”
Third place: Poorna Sreekumar, University of Maryland School of Medicine, “Funeral for Billy”
2017
First place: Namrata Gumaste, Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, “Boat Building in Maine”
Second place: Candice Mazon, Drexel University, “13 Body Parts”
Third place: Cayce Smith, UT Southwestern Medical School, “eleven/19”
2010
First Place: Nitin Ahuja, University of Michigan Medical School, “Murmur”
Second Place: Christina Crumpecker, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, “Insensible Losses”
Third Place: Chris Marett, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, “Black Tulips”
2009
First Place: Jason Paluzzi, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, “Dandelions”
Second Place: Jenna Le, Columbia University, “Tire Swing”
Third Place: Apoorva Balakrishnan, University of Manitoba, “march, 1973”
2008
First Place: Andrea Schwartz, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, “Home Visit”
Second Place: Jordan Amadio, Harvard Medical School, “Boyhood on the Coast of Italy”
Third Place: Joanna Cranston, University of Illinois College of Medicine, “Last Day of Class”
2007
First Place: Victoria Chiou, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, “Gross Anatomy: First Cut”
Second Place: Jennifer Srygley, Harvard Medical School, “Navajo Sheepdog”
Third Place: Fang Bu, Washington University School of Medicine, “Cinco de Mayo”
Third Place: Kayla Rosen, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, “Zanzibar”
2006
First Place: Sarah Cross, University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, “Monarch”
Second Place: Sarah Cross, University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, “The Little Sister”
Third Place: Emily Gillett, Harvard Medical School, “Galileo Leaves Home”
2005
First Place: Joanna Pearson, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, “A Bald Woman”
Second Place: Manesh Dagli, New York University School of Medicine, “When We Returned”
Third Place: Joanna Pearson, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, “Watching TV with a Woman Dying of AIDS”