Winners of the 2021-2022 UNMC College of Nursing Creative Writing Project Awards recently were announced.
Faculty members Mary Petersen and Mark Darby created the awards with a two-year UNMC Faculty Diversity Grant. The competition provides an outlet for nursing students to share their stories.
For the theme "Nurses Encounter Diversity," 45 entries were submitted for one of the three award levels. Each winner will be published in a single volume entitled "Our Stories: The 2021-2022 UNMC College of Nursing Creative Writing Awards."
The Top Award includes a cash prize of $2,000 and the Honorable Mention Award includes a prize of $400. Winners of the third category, the Publication Award, will be included in "Our Stories," which will be published later this year. The first volume of collected stories from the 2020-2021 Creative Writing Awards was published last month.
"Our stories this year dealt with the challenges of being different — different race, different gender, different country of origin," said Mark Darby, instructor, UNMC College of Nursing. "Sometimes our students were the subject of the difference; other times they were the patients. But in all cases, the stories explored the meaning of these differences for patient care. Nurses have a story that needs to be heard, and often there is no forum for these stories. We created this contest to honor nurses and their stories."
Top Award
- Abbey Klein, "Do Unto Others"
- James Vermilion, "Won't/Don't Come Back"
- Jessica Metcalf, "To Be Heard Without Speaking: An Encounter with Human Difference"
- Oliver Ramirez-Gutierrez, "A True SOB"
- Rasila Soumana Hama, "How I Feel about your Question"
- Sierra Conway, "What do Your Shoes Carry?"
Honorable Mention
- Amy Webb, "Burned Out"
- Cindi Nava-Hernandez, "Si Se Puede"
- Gracie Finn, "A Prisoner Away from Prison"
- Katie Belfiore, "Eight Hours that Taught Me More than a Textbook Ever Could"
- Leah Maass, "A Nurse's Why"
- Theresa Diederich, "The Mask of COVID"
- Viri Garibay Gutierrez, "The Most Special Kind of Person"
Publication Award
- Alexandra Tran, "The Understanding We Share"
- Brittany Ward, "Without Warning"
- Celia Cox, "Malaika Means Angel"
- Haley Parisi, "rm 370"
- Jordyn Sacco, "Unspoken Truths"
- Kaylee Rhoades, "Chefs with Stethoscopes"
- Laurie Sewell-Muller, "The Landscape of Mental Health"
- Madi Svoboda, "Life and its Lessons; Empathy"
- Miya Morgan, "I Belong Here"
- Sadie Nichols, "Mocha Skin"
- Taylor Hunter, "Just for a Moment"
An article about the Creative Writing Project is scheduled to be published in the American Journal of Nursing in May. The Creative Writing Project team includes Darby, Petersen, Amelia Stoltman and Brittany Jones.
The winning entires from last year are available online.