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Jawahar “Jay” Mehta, M.D., Ph.D., and Paulette Mehta, M.D., M.P.H., have created the Drs. Paulette and Jay Mehta Award in Creative Writing to encourage creative expression at UAMS.
Image by Bryan Clifton
UAMS Unveils Drs. Paulette and Jay Mehta Award in Creative Writing
| Paulette Mehta, M.D., M.P.H., is a longtime believer in the power of creative expression. As a physician, she turns to poetry to keep herself emotionally healthy as she treats cancer patients.
Her husband, Jawahar “Jay” Mehta, M.D., Ph.D., a distinguished professor of Internal Medicine, Physiology and Biophysics, also believes in the importance of creative outlets, making time in his life for painting, photography and building futuristic furniture.
“We have both found our creative work to be the most meaningful, fulfilling, and joyful of our activities, and a wonderful outlet for our stress,” said Paulette Mehta, a professor of Internal Medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology in the College of Medicine.
This belief in creative expression and a desire to encourage it amongst their colleagues is the reason the Mehtas donated $50,000 to UAMS to create the Drs. Paulette and Jay Mehta Award in Creative Writing.
“I hope the Mehta Award will inspire the writing of both creative fiction and nonfiction, poetry and prose by members of the UAMS community,” said D. Micah Hester, Ph.D., chair of both the award committee and the Department of Medical Humanities and Bioethics and a professor of Medical Humanities and Pediatrics.
All employees and students are eligible to compete.
The husband-and-wife physician team hope this award, along with the UAMS literary journal “Medicine and Meaning,” the short story club at the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute and the yearly “Art from the Heart” exhibit, inspire Team UAMS members to start creating.
“Creative arts in medicine can humanize medicine, enhance meaning and bring transcendence in our everyday work said Paulette Mehta.
“Everyone will win — health care providers, researchers and patients alike.”
For more information about how to enter this year’s competition, see the UAMS Announcements.