Benhard ’26 MSN, Daskalakis ’26 MSN, and Lee ’26 MSN Win Creative Writing Awards

In a sweep for both poetry and the Class of 2026, Yale School of Nursing (YSN) students Angie Benhard ’26 MSN, Liz Daskalakis ’26 MSN, and Austin Lee ’26 MSN each took home $1,000 as the winners of the 21^st annual Creative Writing Awards at a ceremony on April 24 at Anthony’s Ocean View in New Haven.

Dean Azita Emami PhD, MSN, BSN, RNT, RN, FAAN reflected on why this signature annual event has entered its third decade.

“I think one reason why this event has continued for more than 20 years is that writing is such an intimate activity, and we share so much of ourselves when we submit our work to a third party and ask them to judge it,” Emami said. “We ask them to assess it and tell us what they think, and whether the work is worthy. Taking part in this creative effort reveals that every person in this room has a story worth telling and a story worth hearing.”

Pulitzer Prize winner Pam Belluck, a health and science reporter at the New York Times, served as the keynote speaker at the awards ceremony. During her remarks, she repeatedly drew strong connections between nursing and reporting, pointing out that both require the ability to listen carefully and compassionately, convey facts to others, and earn the trust of the other person in the room.

“You will save many lives with your skills and technical knowledge,” Belluck said, while also encouraging the students to bring passionate persistence to their roles and follow the journalistic practice of treating everyone fairly and respectfully.

“Good nursing, like good writing, is inspiring,” Belluck said.

And the Winners Are…

Psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner (NP) student Angie Benhard ’26 MSN took one of three top prizes for her poem “I Think I Have a Bad Cold.”

“I chose to write about my time as a CNA at an adolescent psychiatric hospital,” Benhard writes in the introduction to her piece. “I wanted this poem to shine a light on all the barriers and stigmas that surround mental health, especially for people of color. This poem is a compilation of my clients, their truths, and their bravery.”

Read “I Think I Have a Bad Cold” in its entirety.

In her poem “My First Code,” psychiatric mental health NP student Liz Daskalakis ’26 MSN described an experience that has stayed front-of-mind for her.

The first stanza reads:

I was overly naïve and earnestly optimistic to think

That my first code would be exciting.

Not because I was overconfident

Or a pompous nursing student

As if there is such a thing

But within me lingered one of the most sinister and misleading of emotions:

Hope.

Read “My First Code” in its entirety.

In the introduction to his prize-winning poem, family nurse practitioner student Austin Lee ’26 MSN explored grief as a clinician.

“I felt that grief is often an untouched subject in the field of medicine,” Lee writes. “We are trained to diagnose, intervene, and save lives… but what happens when you come face-to-face with death? It’s distressing, it’s like a cold slap to the face with ice water. Hey, you can’t save everyone. So, you hold this grief inside of you, sometimes you don’t know where to put it. So, what happens to it? What happens to grief that you can’t place anywhere?”

Read “Grief as a Circular Staircase” in its entirety.

Honorable Mentions

Three nursing students were recognized with honorable mentions for their work. As Dean Emami shared at the ceremony, judges don’t always designate honorable mention awards, but when they do it is because they want to acknowledge the quality and power of contributions beyond those of the three winners.

• Family Nurse Practitioner student and previous CWA winner Michelle D. for the poem “Float On”

• Nurse Midwifery and Women’s Health student Brielle Quarles ’25 MSN for her poem “Thoughts on Pushing Through”

• Doctoral student Yosra Raziani ’29 PhD for the poem “Whispers of Change: A Solitary Voice in the Tech Tide”

Judges

The panel of four judges brought a depth and breadth of experience of writing and nursing to their assessments.

• Anna Quindlen won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1992 for her New York Times column “Public and Private.” She has judged the Creative Writing Awards multiple times.
• Nicole Langan Maciejak ’06 MSN, APRN, CPNP-PC joined the YSN faculty in 2020 and is currently a lecturer in the pediatric specialty for her poem “Right-Sided Smile.”
• Sana Goldberg ’20 MSN published her first book, “How to Be a Patient: The Essential Guide to Navigating the World of Modern Medicine,” while a student at YSN.
• Ophelia Empleo-Frazier ’99 MSN, GNP-BC, CDP is a lecturer in the adult/gerontology primary care NP specialty and is also a preceptor for students in their specialty rotations.

More Creative Writing Coverage

To see a complete list of Creative Writing Award winners over the past two decades, visit Past Creative Writing Awards.