As we end our 2018 publication cycle, we are delighted to honor the winners of the annual William Carlos Williams Poetry Medical Student Competition and to share their verse in this issue of the journal. They are:

  • Sean McEvoy is a fourth-year medical student at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson. He balances medical school with writing, playing music, and gardening, all of which keep him "happy and above water." After completing his education at Arizona, he hopes to move into his own family medicine practice or the field of palliative medicine and hospice care. Sean's poem, "When I Saw the Table," placed first in the competition.

  • Adam Lalley is a third-year student at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. He is also a winner of the Michael E. DeBakey Medical Student Poetry Award hosted by the Baylor College of Medicine, and he served as the student managing editor of the 2018 issue of Narrateur: Reflections on Caring, the art and literary journal of Northwell Health. Adam graduated from Harvard University in 2004 with a degree in English and American Literature and Language, worked at a literary agency, and spent six years teaching English in Asia. He began writing poetry in the first months of medical school to combine his dual interests in medicine and literature. Adam's poem, "Hematopoiesis," placed second this year.

  • Poorna Sreekumar is a third-year medical student at University of Maryland, Baltimore. She received a Bachelor of Science in chemistry from University of Maryland, College Park in 2014. While at college, she had the opportunity to take many fiction and poetry writing courses, and she notes that "writing has always been a way for me to understand and connect with the world." She hopes to make it a large a part of her future medical career. Poorna's poem, "Funeral for Billy," placed third.

On behalf of the editorial board of JMH, I congratulate all three medical student poets. We look forward to publishing and reading their work in future issues.