Writing Contest
Heather Seiben
By Kim Kiser
How did you get interested in writing?
I grew up in Cottage Grove, Minnesota. We had a poet come to our junior high school, and that’s when I started writing. I very much like poetry. It has always come naturally to me. It’s how I express myself.
Do you only write poetry?
I do a lot of journaling. Sometimes something that has happened in my life will inspire me to write something that’s not a poem. Usually it’s poetry, although there are times I will write a short story.
What process do you go through when writing?
Usually it’s inspired. I can’t sit down and be a poet and write about anything. It has to come to me.
What was the inspiration for “To Be a Better Doctor”?
Myself, as well as a few other students. We had a lot of relationship issues, trying to balance life and school. The purpose of that poem was to point out how difficult it is and how hard medical school can be on relationships. When my friends read it, they all put themselves at different places along the poem in terms of where they are in life. I wanted to end with a sense of hope. I’m at the end of the poem, where it’s hopeful. I’m in a healthy relationship, and it’s very reassuring to look back and know you can have a life.
How did the poem come together?
For two months, I knew what I wanted to write, it was figuring out how to make it work. Did I want to make it rhyme? Did I want it to be a sonnet? About a month later, I decided I wanted to do more of a monologue, which is what it is. I wrote it the Friday before the deadline. I’m not usually a procrastinator, but I didn’t want to write something forced and have it not be real.
How important is it to write about what’s happening in your life?
It’s very important to me. That’s what poetry is about. It needs to be emotional, connected.
Do you see a connection between medicine and writing?
When we started school last fall, there was a poem on the back of our orientation booklets. It was about the first time you see your cadaver. It’s a hard experience. I looked at that poem and thought it was an interesting thing to write about. I didn’t know if I could write about medical school and medicine. To me, it just didn’t seem poetic. They’re going to use the poem that I entered in this contest in orientation next year.
Read "To Be a Better Doctor"