Submit

Impressions is currently accepting submissions for publication on a rolling basis. Join our e-mail list and follow our instagram for the latest updates on submissions.

We are seeking literary and artistic work that reflects on encounters with medicine, patient care, healing and more. Impressions primarily spotlights undergraduate voices, recognizing how formative these early experiences can be, while also welcoming submissions from graduate students, healthcare professionals, patients, caregivers, and others who continue to be shaped by new encounters. Through these works, we hope to foster reflection and share perspectives with others navigating similar experiences.

We do not welcome simultaneous submissions, or submissions of previously published work. Authors retain intellectual property rights to their works. All submissions are considered in a blind-review by our editorial board and will be returned with feedback regardless of publication decision. Decisions will be emailed within 2 weeks of submission, and published on our website on a rolling basis. For any additional questions, please email us via impressions@gmail.com.

Patient Privacy Notice

Impressions is committed to protecting the privacy, dignity, and confidentiality of patients and others represented in submitted work. Because narrative medicine often engages with personal and sensitive experiences, all submissions should handle the people and stories they represent with care. Contributors are expected to follow applicable legal and ethical standards, including HIPAA privacy principles, and to remove or alter details that could reasonably identify a patient or other individual. We strongly encourage authors to review HIPAA’s 18 recognized identifiers and to seek written permission when sharing a patient’s story whenever appropriate. Please refer to What is Narrative Medicine? for more resources, or contact impressions@gmail.com with questions or concerns.

How to Submit

Impressions accepts fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and visual arts submissions. See “Genres” below in order to best categorize your piece, and review your genre’s submission guidelines before submitting.

To submit to Impressions, email impressions@gmail.com with the subject line “Submission: First Name Last Name.”

Written works should be attached as a Word doc (.docx or .doc) and visual arts may be attached as .jpg or .png. Please upload images or scans of artwork in an appropriate resolution or image size. DO NOT include the author's name or other identifying information in your file or file name.

In the body of your email, please include the following information: full name, contact information, the genre of your piece, any institutional affiliations, and any contextual information that accompanies your piece or that you want the editors to know. Please also provide a brief author biography, which will be published with an accepted submission. As a space for personal experiences, we want to see the person behind the narrative. See here for an example email template and author biography.

AI has no place in a literary journal devoted to creativity and personal, human narrative. Submissions should solely be of the author's original creation, and any pieces suspected of AI will be rejected or removed from publication.

Genre Guidelines

Review the submission guidelines for each genre, to best categorize your piece and understand all the possible forms of narrative medicine. NOTE: Remove all author-identifying information from submission files and file names (e.g. author name, institution, etc.)

Fiction: We welcome fiction pieces exploring themes such as health, illness, caregiving, medicine, and patient care. Fiction pieces may capture unique points of view and range from realistic narratives to more experimental forms. Submissions should demonstrate a strong literary voice and engage meaningfully with the human experiences surrounding health and care. Submissions should not exceed 2,500 words in length.

Creative Nonfiction: We seek creative nonfiction that is grounded in lived experience. This may include personal narratives, reflective essays, or field notes that explore an encounter with a patient, an experience as a caregiver or volunteer, one's own experience of health or illness, an observation within a healthcare setting, or another moment that prompted reflection or changed perspective. Such pieces should be anecdotal, and move beyond recounting an experience to consider its deeper meaning, in a clear narrative arc. Submissions should not exceed 2,500 words in length.

Poetry: Poetry submissions might engage with experiences and ideas surrounding health, illness, the body, caregiving, medicine, and human connection. Poems may draw from personal experience, observation, imagination, or reflection and may take any poetic form. We recommend poems generally not exceed more than three pages in length.

Visual Arts: Original visual work may include photography, paintings, or illustrations which . Works may be stand alone or be accompanied by a brief artist statement providing context or reflection. Related works or series should be submitted in the same email. Optional artist statements should not exceed 500 words and files should be high-resolution JPG or PNGs.

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