Berlin Richard M

Website Links

Description

THE GERALD F. BERLIN CREATIVE WRITING AWARD The Gerald F. Berlin Creative Writing Award at the University of Massachusetts Medical School honors the poetry, fiction and essays of medical students, physicians in training (interns, residents, fellows), graduate students, and nursing students from the medical school. The award is funded by a $1,000 donation given by Richard M. Berlin, M.D. Dr. Berlin established the award to encourage creative writing by health professionals in training and to honor his father who struggled with a severe chronic illness. The author of the poetry collection How JFK Killed My Father which describes his father's illness and his own career in medicine, Dr. Berlin believes, "Creative writing gives health professionals in training a special opportunity to reflect on their experiences, to maintain their humanity, and to heighten their empathy for the suffering of their patients. These are qualities that bring doctors closer to their patients, and I know these are the qualities my father always looked for and admired in his own physicians." Judges for the award include Richard M. Berlin, M.D., David Hatem, M.D. Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine, and Susan N. Tarrant, Director, Patient Care Services, UMass Memorial Medical Center. Medical school Associate Deans Michele Pugnaire, M.D. and Mai-Lan Rogoff, M.D. coordinate the contest. Award Submission Guidelines Introduction for the Gerald F. Berlin Creative Writing Award April 27, 2005 Presented by Richard M. Berlin, M.D. Associate Professor of Psychiatry University of Massachusetts Medical School Medical student writers who were fearless enough to submit your poems, stories, and essays: you were fantastic. Each one brought tears to my eyes for their honesty, immediacy and compassion. It was a privilege to read your work and imagine you as colleagues. Thank you to my fellow judges, Emily Ferrara and Dave Hatem, who are doing such extraordinary work in their creative writing class for medical students and for their broader efforts in teaching and developing the medical humanities. And congratulations to Emily for her recent success with own her poetry. Finally, thank you to Michele Pugnaire and Mai-Lan Rogoff who has been instrumental in setting up the award and administering the contest. Since this is the first ceremony for an award I have funded for at least ten years, I want to tell you something about why I wanted to establish a medical student creative writing award dedicated to the memory of my father. When my father turned 37 in 1963, he was diagnosed with autoimmune hemolytic anemia. Over the next few years, the autoimmune process evolved to include inflammatory bowel disease with a combination of ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. I was thirteen the year he took sick, and what happened over the next seventeen years, before his death from colon cancer at age 56, had a major impact on shaping my life and career. My father served in the Army-Air Corps at a weather station in Greenland during World War II. When he returned home, he began law school, but after the isolation of years in the Arctic, he no longer felt motivated to sit and study.

Products & services

Similar companies nearby