Journals Accepting Creative Writing

[Iwillheal]

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In medicine, a few journals do (mostly works written by physicians and medical students) but I'm not aware of any in our field. I took up poetry writing as a way of expressing some of my feelings after coming to contact with a difficult case a few months ago, and I thought it'd be nice to get a few of my poems published. I wrote poetry as a child so I'm glad to have come upon it once again. I recommend it (and any creative endeavors, be it painting, story writing, or whatever) as a way of releasing some pent up emotions and making sense of some new personal experiences.

 

[deleted462159]

I'm not familiar with psych journals accepting poems. But if you did a study on the benefits of expressive (especially creative) writing, you can probably include a poem as an example or in the appendix... though perhaps you can get it published elsewhere? Or even post it on your blog/website for your creative identity.

 

[JustNoticing]

I had a supervisor who published occasionally in literary journals, with one piece being on a mental health topic.

 

[ela]

Not sure about psych journals, but i know JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) publishes poetry.

 

[meklorka]

Not specific to medicine, but try duotrope.com - its a database of literary journals. I have worked on literary journals almost my whole adult life, as I too am a writer, and have been published in some as well. Its a very rewarding experience, but if you haven't been published before or done workshops or gotten feedback on your writing, it can also be a good way of learning about your writing from a different perspective based on what gets accepted and rejected. There are many writers in healing professions I have found, particularly psych.

 

[Iwillheal]

Yes, I only know of JAMA. Wig, sorry, couldn't reply through PM for whatever reason. But yeah, JAMA is the only one and of course in Canada, CMAJ. Of course these two are just medical journals so preference is given to creative writing focusing on medicine.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

Not specific to medicine, but try duotrope.com - its a database of literary journals. I have worked on literary journals almost my whole adult life, as I too am a writer, and have been published in some as well. Its a very rewarding experience, but if you haven't been published before or done workshops or gotten feedback on your writing, it can also be a good way of learning about your writing from a different perspective based on what gets accepted and rejected. There are many writers in healing professions I have found, particularly psych.

I agree--even if there aren't many devoted specifically to healthcare/mental health professionals, there are plenty of creative writing journals that are more than willing to review all types of submissions. Like meklorka, having worked as a student editor for a few years at a literary quarterly myself, I can say from first-hand experience that contributors came from a staggering multitude of primary occupations.

 

[wigflip]

Yes, I only know of JAMA. Wig, sorry, couldn't reply through PM for whatever reason. But yeah, JAMA is the only one and of course in Canada, CMAJ. Of course these two are just medical journals so preference is given to creative writing focusing on medicine.

Ah. Got it.

As I probably mentioned in PM, Affilia: Journal of Women in Social Work is a nice place to publish poetry because they usually publish 2-3 poems from a single author. Closest I've found to an academic J with mental health focus.

 

[OOOOOOO]

The journal Psychoanalytic Perspectives has a Creative Literary section that publishes poetry. For more info: http://psychperspectives.com/literary.shtml

 

[wigflip]

One thing I've found irritating about sending literary work to academic journals is that they often don't provide all the same submission information that strictly literary Js do (i.e. are simultaneous submissions permissible?).

 

[JustNoticing]

Just came across these poems in the Journal of College Student Psychotherapy http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/87568225.2011.532473

 

[wigflip]

Just came across these poems in the Journal of College Student Psychotherapy http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/87568225.2011.532473

Note that both poems are reprints.

I just visited the J's submissions guidelines, and though I only skimmed, I didn't see anything about them welcoming creative writing. Perhaps these are anomalous?