2026 Poetry Competition winners announced
Winners of the 44th annual William Carlos Williams Poetry Competition have been announced.
Judges from the Cleveland State University Poetry Center evaluated poems submitted by medical students and physicians from across the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico to select three winning entries and an honorable mention in each category.
STUDENT FIRST PLACE 
Safi Alsebai is a fourth-year medical student at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, Arkansas. His poem, “The Passion According to a Citizen of Geneva” questions the rhetoric of sentimentality in the clinic and the preconditions of speaking for and with others.
STUDENT SECOND PLACE
Kiran Masroor is a second-year medical student at Duke University School of Medicine and a Yale University graduate. Her poetry has been previously published in journals including Muzzle Magazine, New York Quarterly, and the Yale Global Health Review.
STUDENT THIRD PLACE
Andrea Abi-Karam is a third-year medical student at Emory University dedicated to gun violence prevention, harm reduction, & LGBTQ health. Andrea’s poem, VISCERAL SOUNDFORM, merges a critique of weapons manufacturing with the study of anatomy & the experimental film Line Describing a Cone by Anthony McCall.
STUDENT HONORABLE MENTION
Liahm Blank is a second-year medical student at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine in Las Vegas. A long-time writer, Liahm has been published in journals such as Scholastic Art and Writing's Best Teen Writing, Beyond Thought Magazine, and the American Library of Poetry's collection Together.
PHYSICIAN FIRST PLACE
Born in Northern California and raised in the Middle East, Matthew Dettmer has called many places home. He currently resides in Northeast Ohio where he is a critical care physician and poet.
PHYSICIAN SECOND PLACE
K. Hari is a physician and poet of Tamil descent, whose work explores embodied heritage, inevitable harm, and poetic formalism as a means of healing. Her writing can be found in publications such as The Shore, The Plentitudes, The Margins, Kartika Review, and The Brooklyn Review
PHYSICIAN THIRD PLACE 
Liana Meffert is an emergency medicine physician in Wisconsin. Her essays and poetry explore the intersection of clinical practice and human experience.
AWARD CEREMONY
In addition to a monetary award, the top prize-winning poems will be considered for publication in the Journal of Medical Humanities. They also will be honored in the annual awards ceremony to be held noon-1 p.m. on Saturday, March 28, at the Health Education Campus, Case Western Reserve University, 9501 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH 44106. This event is open to the public as part of the John P. Murphy Symposium, and we welcome you to join us in celebrating the awardees. For more information and to register to attend the awards ceremony in-person or remotely, visit the CampusGroups event page.
Congratulations to all the winners!