Past Winners
Past William Carlos Williams Poetry Competition winners
Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED)’s annual poetry competition was named for and envisioned in the spirit of the iconic American poet and pioneering patient-centered physician William Carlos Williams. It honors his legacy by celebrating contemporary clinician writers—both medical students and established practitioners—whose work illustrates the art of medicine and the dynamic interplay of health care and the humanities. An influential poet in the imagist movement in modernist art and literature, Williams’ poetry is appreciated for its stark minimalism and vivid attention to the details of early twentieth-century life, particularly in the working-class neighborhoods outside of New York City where he practiced medicine. While Williams at times struggled to balance his desire to write with the demands of his medical practice, his medical career afforded him the financial freedom to write, as well as the inspiration for poems jotted down on prescription blanks in the breaks between patient visits.
Each of the past 44 years, NEOMED has recognized exceptional medical student poetry by awarding first-, second-, and third-place prizes, as well as honorable mentions, to students enrolled in a medical degree program in the US, Puerto Rico, or Canada. Having begun under the leadership of Drs. Delese Wear and Martin Kohn in 1982, NEOMED’s William Carlos Williams poetry competition is the oldest running poetry competition for medical students in the United States. The competition introduced a new category for physician poets in 2025, welcoming submissions from any rank of physician (MD or DO) at any career stage, from residency to retirement, in North America.
2026
Student category
- “The Passion According to a Citizen of Geneva,” Safi Alsebai, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences,
- “Interrupted Connection,” Kiran Masroor, Duke University School of Medicine
- “VISCERAL SOUNDFORM,” Andrea Abi-Karam, Emory University
Physician category
- “That Night,” Matthew Dettmer, a critical care physician and poet who lives in Ohio
- “Abruption Ghazal,” K. Hari, a physician and poet of Tamil descent
- “I Call Poison Control,” Liana Meffert, an emergency medicine physician in Wisconsin
2025
Student category
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 category *
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”
Earlier winners
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”