{"id":91528,"date":"2014-04-22T09:13:32","date_gmt":"2014-04-22T13:13:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=91528"},"modified":"2014-04-23T13:07:04","modified_gmt":"2014-04-23T17:07:04","slug":"students-launch-uconn-health-literary-magazine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2014\/04\/students-launch-uconn-health-literary-magazine\/","title":{"rendered":"Students Launch UConn Health Literary Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Second-year<\/a>
Second-year medical student Jason Bitterman contributed his comic strip Student Doctor B.A. to the inaugural issue of Anastomoses.\u0094<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A new creative outlet is now available to students and faculty at UConn Health who wish to express themselves by writing.<\/p>\n

The online literary magazine \u201cAnastomoses\u201d is now live at www.anastomoseslitmag.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yoyo Zhang and Tina Toutoungi, both third-year students at the UConn School of Medicine, came up with the idea while on a walk last fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were processing some of what we had been going through in our rotations and that\u2019s when we said, \u2018Let\u2019s do it,\u2019\u201d Toutoungi says.<\/p>\n

Syas Zhang, \u201cWe were struggling with being in clinic, not being used to the clinical setting, and dealing with a lot of emotions, and really not having an outlet for it. We both turn to journaling and literature, it\u2019s like a solace for us. And we thought, if we feel this way, maybe other third-years feel this way too, because it\u2019s a difficult time. And maybe faculty actually feel this way, dealing with patients being sick, and stress at the work place.\u201d<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t take long to assemble an editorial board, which consists of the two founding students, who serve as chief co-editors, plus medical students Alex Hennessey, Chris Del Prete, Nikki Rubin, and Shirin Karimi, and dental students Dana Buglione and Vladimir Nazarov. Dr. Peter Deckers<\/a>, dean emeritus of the UConn School of Medicine, and Dr. Hugh Blumenfeld<\/a>, assistant professor of family medicine, are the faculty advisers.<\/p>\n

\"Back,<\/a>
Back, from left: Vladimir Nazarov, Alex Hennessy, Dana Buglione, and Dr. Hugh Blumenfeld, along with (front, from left) Yoyo Zhang, Shirin Karimi, and Tina Toutoungi, are on the editorial board of Anastomoses, the online literary magazine launched recently at UConn Health. (Photo provided by Yoyo Zhang)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe board is amazing \u2013 really creative people who\u2019ve done really cool things prior to coming to medical and dental school, and who are really talented,\u201d Toutoungi says. \u201cWe formed the board and then from there we group emailed to faculty and students, and used word of mouth, and some peer pressure, but there were a lot of folks who came out of the woodwork and contributed. Faculty too, which was really surprising and welcomed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adds Zhang, \u201cIn our professional fields, I think it\u2019s rare that we pause and take time to reflect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Launched earlier this month, Anastomoses features nearly 30 submissions of writing, poetry, and imagery \u2013 including photos, a sketch, and even a comic strip.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the \u201cAsk DH\u201d page.<\/p>\n

\u201cDr. Dan Henry<\/a> is sort of an institution at our school, and we wanted to create something of an \u2018Ask Alice\u2019 advice column for students,\u201d Zhang says. \u201cIt was always intended as a humorous section and we think it\u2019s perfect how DH answers all of the not-so-serious questions with 100 percent earnestness, in true DH fashion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The co-editors-in-chief share a passion for writing and reading, and say some of their favorite authors are physicians.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn med school I found all these physician authors who were really inspiring, which made me realize I could do both,\u201d says Zhang, who studied both English and pre-med as an undergraduate at Boston College. \u201cAs med school got tougher and tougher, journaling and reading became an outlet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toutoungi, who majored in psychology at Colgate, describes herself as \u201ca private journaler.\u201d She likens journaling to sitting down and talking to a friend, \u201cbut you\u2019ve just written it down on paper. And as you write, you process through it too. There\u2019s a healing involved in that. And you can revisit some of those emotions.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the project\u2019s name, it\u2019s based on the word \u201canastomosis,\u201d which refers to the surgical connection of two structures in a branching system, generally blood vessels.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a place we can all come together and join all of our voices, and it will be a collective forum,\u201d Zhang says.<\/p>\n

Submissions are welcome via uchc.litmag@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

Follow <\/i>UConn Health<\/i><\/a> on <\/i>Facebook<\/i><\/a>, <\/i>Twitter<\/i><\/a>, and <\/i>YouTube<\/i><\/a>. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An outlet for students and faculty at UConn Health to express their creativity is now online.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":91530,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[57,2010],"class_list":["post-91528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uconn-health","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-06 09:04:45","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91528"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92343,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91528\/revisions\/92343"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/91530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91528"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=91528"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=91528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}