Annual Student Writing Competition
A country-wide challenge
Canadian medical students and residents are invited to submit reflective essays, poetry or short fiction that explore the intersection of mental health and the humanities to the Dalhousie Department of Psychiatry Annual Student Writing Contest. Each year, one entry in each category (medical student and postgraduate trainee) will be selected to receive a $100 cash prize.* Winning entries will be published in the Department of Psychiatry newsletter, Headlines, and below.
*Awards in each category may not be given each year depending on the number and/or quality of the submissions.
Interested in learning more about the competition? Read a published report on the first decade of the competition (2010-2019).
Eligibility: Medical students, residents and fellows at Canadian medical schools.
Maximum word count: 2,000 words
Deadline: June 30, 2025
Winners will be announced in fall 2025.
How to make a submission:
Entries can be sent as PDF attachments to the Department of Psychiatry Medical Humanities Coordinator, Dr. Leigh Meldrum, at psych.education@dal.ca. Please indicate in your email whether you are a medical student or a resident/fellow.
To ensure confidentiality is maintained, patients and anyone else described in essays, stories or poems must be fictional or composite characters (with the exception of the narrator him/herself). Faculty and a resident from the Dalhousie Department of Psychiatry and creative writers teaching at Dalhousie University will act as judges.
Full competition rules and regulations [PDF - 145KB]
View the 2025 Writing Competition Flyer [PDF - 189 KB]
*WARNING* Some winning entries contain sensitive content that some readers may find offensive or disturbing.
2024 Winners and Honourable Mentions
Postgraduate Trainee Category Winner:
- Dr. Kara Yeung, Dalhousie University
Read Kara's winning entry, "The Treatment Plan" [PDF - 44 KB]
Postrgraduate Trainnee Honourable Mention:
- Dr. Lauren Miller, Dalhousie University,"Death and Taxes"
Medical Student Category Winner:
- Camelia Ursu, University of Calgary
Read Camelia's winning entry, "what and how and why we do: a short pondering on the coalescence of the medical and the natural" [PDF - 52 KB]
Medical Student Honourable Mentions:
- Aparna Kuchibhatla, Queens University, "Home"
- Priya Khalsa, University of Toronto, "Recovering from Shame and my Journey Towards Forensic Psychiatry"