Paul Kalanithi Writing Award
Paul Kalanithi was a physician writer and neurosurgery resident at Stanford University. In the final years of his training, he was diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer. His memoir, When Breath Becomes Air, beautifully chronicles his reflections on living with illness and the meaning of legacy. The Paul Kalanithi Writing Award was created in his memory.
Open for submissions: November 1, 2023
This short documentary by Stanford videographer Mark Hanlon captures Paul Kalanithi’s shifting perception of time while living with terminal cancer.
Lucy Kalanithi often visits the gravesite of her husband, Paul Kalanithi, with the couple’s daughter, Cady, to picnic and leave flowers. (Photo by Timothy Archibald)
Prize Winners
2022 Prize Winners
First place: Sick Girl Goes on a Date | Alyson Lee
Second place: To Sit With | Brian Zhao
Third place: What That Poem was About | Fiona Miller
Fourth place: I Wear You Like a Memory | Nicolas Seranio
Honorable Mention
Junk Journal | James Hyun Lee
2021 Prize Winners
First place: Sliding Down | Michael Rabow, MD
Second place: Silver | Hannah Joyner
Third place: Of Seeds | Rachael Peckham, PhD
Honorable Mention
How to Deal with Charon | Brian Smith, Medical Student
2019 Prize Winners
1st Place: RUNNING MCCOY'S by Heather Cariou
2nd Place: Time Like Water by Grace Li
3rd Place: Dark Rides by Amy Haddad
Honorable Mention
The Ward is the World by Laurie Kutchins
2018 Prize Winners
2016 Prize Winners
1st Place: Perestroika by Petr Vitkovskiy
2nd Place: Parlor Talk by Catherine Wong
Submissions Open: November 1, 2023 - January 2, 2024
Medicine & the Muse is pleased to announce an open call for unpublished short stories, essays or poetry addressing patients and providers facing chronic or life limiting illness.
New in 2023! Entries will be evaluated within their own genre: poetry, fiction and non-fiction.
Contest Guidelines
Short Stories/Essays/Fiction/Non-fiction: Less than 2500 words
Poems: Less than 50 lines
Dual submissions permitted, if they are in different genres. No more than two submissions. Simultaneous submissions permitted, but please withdraw your piece if it gets published elsewhere. Collections of poems are permitted, but please adhere to the line limit. The submission fee is $35 per entry. There is no charge for students, residents and fellows.
SUBMIT HERE
SUBMIT HERE (STUDENTS, RESIDENTS, FELLOWS)
Submission Deadline January 2, 2024
Winners announced March 15, 2024
Judges have Included Drs. Lucy Kalanithi and Daniel Mason, Stanford physician writers, Dr. Jay Baruch, Brown University Alpert School of Medicine physician writer, Dr. Irène Mathieu, Assistant Director, Program in Health Humanities, University of Virginia, Grace Li, MD candidate and author of NYT bestseller, PORTRAIT OF A THIEF, and Executive Director of Stanford Medical Humanities & Arts program, Jacqueline Genovese
Award
Total of 3 winners, one from each genre will be awarded a cash prize of $300.
Honorarium made possible by the generosity of a Stanford Palliative Care benefactor.
Winners will be published in Anastomosis, Stanford University School of Medicine’s humanities and literary journal.
Open to all. Please share widely.