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Annual Balint Society Essay Award 2024
There are two prizes of £500 each – one for undergraduate students and one for everyone else
We hope that this will generate enthusiasm for writing and reflection on your experiences of Balint – as a group member, leader or at a Balint event. Your submission can be in the form of an essay, a short story or other creative writing form.
Medical theses, dissertations and previously published papers are not suitable for this prize. Maximum word count 4000.
Submissions should be sent by 30th September 2024 to our Administrator, Joanne Etches, who can be contacted at administrator [at] balintsociety.org.uk. The competition is open to anyone involved with Balint work except for members of the UK Balint Society Council.
Your work should be presented in English as a Word document, size 12 font with double spacing, and be suitable for publication in the Balint Society Journal without further amendment.
You should include
- Author’s name, title (undergraduate student or other), place of work and email address
- Title of the submission
- Appropriate references in a standard form – maximum 10 references
- Disguise of any patients and group members so they cannot be identified.
The submissions will be anonymized and judged by four members of the Balint Society and a consensus reached. The judges' decision will be final. The prizes may be shared.
The judges will be looking for evidence of reflection by the author on themselves, the patient(s) and the group experiences, and for progression of ideas. They will value use of language that is precise and engaging, with notable sense of voice, awareness of audience (readers of the journal) and purpose. The use of metaphor, imagination and other literary tools, and a varied sentence structure are desirable.
The winners will be decided and notified by email, towards the end of November 2024 and winning submissions will be announced at the Balint Society AGM and published in the Balint Society journal