William Carlos Williams Poetry Competition Celebrates Medical Student and Physician Poets

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.