Literary Journal

Survive & Thrive: A Journal for Medical Humanities and Narrative as Medicine

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Journals & literary magazines1 open opportunity listed

About the magazine

Survive & Thrive: A Journal for Medical Humanities and Narrative as Medicine is an open-access, peer-reviewed journal hosted by St. Cloud State University. Founded to bridge the divide between clinical practice and the human stories that shape health and illness, it publishes work that explores the intersections of medicine, narrative, and the human condition. The journal provides a platform for scholars, healthcare professionals, and artists to examine how storytelling, literature, and the arts inform medical education, patient care, and the experience of illness. Its core mission is to foster a compassionate, interdisciplinary dialogue that recognizes narrative as a vital tool for healing and understanding.

Editorial focus

Survive Thrive provides opportunities for sharing art, poetry, essays, and the practice of Medical Humanities and Narrative as Medicine. The editors encourage those in the medical profession to practice Narrative Medicine by submitting their work, especially when it encourages them to be artists—visual, performance, and literary. The editors encourage survivors, caregivers, and advocates to share their experiences. This act of sharing can foster the healing of others through the power of poetry and story.

PoetryCreative Nonfiction

Submitting your work

Reading periodJan 1 to Dec 31

Reading feeNo

PaymentNo payment

Response time3 to 6 months

Simultaneous submissionsNo

Unsolicited submissionsYes

The journal welcomes submissions that engage with medical humanities, narrative medicine, and the intersections of health, illness, and the arts. Prospective contributors should consult the journal's website for specific submission guidelines, including formatting, citation style, and thematic calls for papers. Given its interdisciplinary scope, submissions should be accessible to a broad audience of clinicians, scholars, and artists. Authors are encouraged to foreground the narrative and humanistic dimensions of their work, whether through scholarly articles, personal essays, poetry, or visual art. As an open-access publication, the journal prioritizes work that advances both academic discourse and practical applications in healthcare and education.

Submissions undergo double-blind peer review, often both by scholars or published creative writers and by those who have experienced or worked with the topic of the submission. This process ensures both literary and scholarly quality and a kind of truth to the human experience. It also commits us to developmental editing for first time authors, including cycles of revision until the piece is publishable.

Read official guidelines

Submission calls

1 listed

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