Intima | SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Our Call for SUBMISSIONS for the Spring-Summer 2026 issue opens Thursday, April 2 to Monday, May 4th.
Sign up for announcements about the next call as well as information about events for our new book, Where It Hurts: Dispatches from the Emotional Frontlines of Medicine publishing on March 24, 2026.
"In Where It Hurts, sixty-three medical professionals―talented writers all―narrate the challenges of ministering to the sick, among them a teen who attempted suicide, a child who needs a pediatric intubation, a dead nineteen-year-old whose harvested kidneys will save a recipient’s life, a dying COVID-19 patient in the ICU, and dozens more. I’ll not soon forget the voices of these dedicated physicians, nurses, teachers, and technicians who treat their patients with humanity, compassion, and humility. I was riveted and moved by this collection."
― Wally Lamb, #1 bestselling author
"Where it Hurts is a powerful anthology with its origins in caregiving, and the pain and suffering that invokes it. The humanity of these poems, stories, and essays makes for compelling reading, an opportunity for spiritual enlargement, and a reminder of why medicine is so much more than service."
― Thomas McGuane, author of A Wooded Shore and The Longest Silence
"The honest, heartbreaking, and uplifting voices of doctors and nurses, EMTs and medical students not only bring us behind the scenes of surgeries and intubations and autopsies, but also let us into their hearts and minds, inviting us to bear witness to everything from the giggle of a pole dancing neurologist to the wailing of a mother who learns her baby has no heartbeat. This book will continue to echo long after you finish it."
― Ann Hood, bestselling author of The Knitting Circle and Comfort: A Journey Through Grief
"Doctors and nurses are people too―multi-layered, mysterious human beings with complex emotional reactions to the care they provide and the patients they encounter. Ranging panoramically in perspective and tone―from the haunting experiences of adolescent psychiatric nurse Jennifer Anderson in “Managed Care,” to family physician Joanne Wilkinson’s confrontation with her own powerlessness to help a woman with advanced Alzheimer’s in “Invisible,” to infectious-disease doctor Ben Goldenberg’s charming paean to hospital gift shops, “For the Old Man Buying a Stuffed Giraffe”―this collection offers readers grand works of literature in miniature. Each piece is a perfect morsel of perception: a window into the soul of a caregiver and a mirror for the reader’s reflection. A testament to the power of narrative medicine, Where It Hurts belongs on every healer’s nightstand."
― Jacob M. Appel, MD, author of Who Says You’re Dead?
"Where It Hurts gathers voices from the intimate, vital space between clinicians and patients, tracing the invisible threads that connect body and story. The writings in this collection reveal the emotional core of medicine―tender, raw, and deeply human."
― Danielle Ofri, MD, PhD, author of What Doctors Feel and editor-in-chief of Bellevue Literary Review
"Gritty and abrasive. Brutally honest and forged with sweat equity and spilled blood. Where It Hurts is a collection of essays and poems that will seize your heart. Even when I wanted to retreat and calm my soul, I kept turning the pages. True stories of immeasurable grief and self-doubt tiled alongside the splendor of rebirth and the wonder of curiosity. This is writing performed by experts with lived experience, who know the guttural pain of fractured clinician-patient relationships and the holiness of covenant. What does it mean when your vocation puts you face-to-face with tensions born of racism and religious blindness? How do I as a physician reconcile my own judgements and righteous anger alongside my pledge to cure and care? My shame-induced isolation was broken and my pride exposed. Suicide, addiction, personal trauma, and moral injury. Glory, beauty, empathy, and love. Open the covers of Where It Hurts and all these will be yours. But be prepared. These words will occupy your mind and stir in you uncomfortable questions long after you’re done."
― Wes Ely, MD, physician-scientist and practicing intensivist at Vanderbilt University, and author of Every Deep-Drawn Breath
"Where it Hurts masterfully spotlights the humanity, humility, and vulnerability of clinicians at the front lines of health care in the United States. Often portrayed in popular media as either superheroes or automatons, health care professionals wrestle with a battleground of universal emotions―self-doubt, fear of mortality, curiosity, tenderness, panic, love, and despair. Their candid stories offer a window into the messy, poignant, and meaningful facets of the human condition."
― Erica C. Kaye, MD, oncologist at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
"Where It Hurts cuts to the core of what it means to be a clinician today. From Rachel Kowalsky’s instructions for “Your First Pediatric Intubation”―with lurking dragons―to the unexpected poignancy of Trisha K. Paul’s “Stroppy Sevens,” each piece in this anthology examines the beauty, the challenges, and the emotional depth of caring for another person."
― Sneha Mantri, MD, Director of Medical Humanities at Duke University School of Medicine
"Where It Hurts could easily have been called Where It Heals. The essays, short stories, and poems do not sugar coat the struggles of navigating illness. Yet somehow, the collection is a healing balm for anyone impacted by their own or someone else’s illness―which is to say anyone who is human."
― Elizabeth Lahti, MD, associate professor and director of narrative medicine at Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine
"Where It Hurts lifts the curtain on the hidden dramas of medicine. These essays and poems reveal the vulnerabilities, private reckonings, fears, and sheer joys of those on the front lines of medical care. A must-read for anyone going into a health care profession, or anyone who may need their services."
― Randi Hutter Epstein, MD, writer in residence and director of the Writing for the Public program at Yale University School of Medicine
"This rich, compelling collection will help physicians, nurses, and their patients (who are, ultimately, all of us) learn important lessons about human nature and what it means to care for each other."
― Joel Howell, MD, PhD, director emeritus of the Medical Arts Program, University of Michigan Medical School
"The nature of health and illness and the intimacies of our bodily experience are at once deeply personal and profoundly universal. Where It Hurts explores this fascinating terrain. This is a book for clinicians, educators, and anyone drawn to ponder this enterprise of living in our beautiful, perfectly imperfect bodies."
― Deepu Gowda, MD, assistant dean for medical education, Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine
"The voices in this collection―wise, tender, funny, and vulnerable―pierce right to the heart of medicine, revealing those profound journeys that unfold in a moment when the stakes are high and humans care for other humans."
― Jay Baruch, MD, author of Tornado of Life: A Doctor's Journey through Creativity and Constraints in the ER
"An extraordinary collection that highlights the intersection between medical mysteries and the mysteries of the human spirit. Each piece is provocative, inspiring, resonant, humane. Brilliantly curated, this collection offers profound, clear-eyed comment on our times and what is most crucial in our lives. A book to return to over and again for insight, compassion, and courage."
― Lou Ann Walker, editor-in-chief of The Southampton Review
"The medical field can feel cold and impersonal to patients, and also to doctors, nurses, and others who work in health care. This book should be required reading for students, physicians, nurses, and anyone who has to deal with the health care system (and that includes all of us!). Highly recommended."
― David G. Thoele, MD, and Marjorie Getz, PhD, co-directors of the narrative medicine program at Advocate Health
“This magnificent collection offers an intimate view of the heartbreak, compassion, awe, inspiration, frustration, and love that knit together the fabric of clinical practice. The authors’ eloquent voices reveal their deep understanding of themselves and of what it means to be human. Where It Hurts bears witness to the suffering of those we care for as well as the challenging, sacred work of healing.”—Pamela Schaff, MD, PhD, director of the MS in Narrative Medicine program at USC’s Keck School of Medicine
General Information Intima publishes original contributions of literary and artistic merit that relate to the theory and practice of narrative medicine. Please see specific guidelines on the genres and submit your piece(s) in the most appropriate category. Intellectual property rights are retained by the author. All work accepted for publication becomes the property of Intima and may be reproduced in part or whole at the discretion of the Editors in future publications either online or in print. We do not welcome simultaneous submissions. Please do not submit previously published work or work that has appeared on a blog. The best way to know what we are looking for is to read past issues of the Intima.
Patient Privacy Notice
Intima adheres to legal and ethical guidelines in accordance with academic and health community publication standards. As clinicians, patients, and family members, we feel strongly that patient privacy and confidentiality should be maintained at all times. We simultaneously recognize that narrative power depends on intimate, singular encounters and the sharing of personal accounts in a respectful and safe environment. To maintain these standards, contributors should review the confidentiality guidelines in the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), with particular attention to the 18 commonly accepted "unique identifiers." We also encourage contributors to seek permission before submitting patient stories, and to fictionalize or change identifiable information whenever possible and appropriate to maintain patient confidentiality and privacy. Please contact theintima@gmail.com with any further questions or concerns.
© Contemplation by Sarah Yang Spring-Summer 2025 Intima
NOTE: In order to cover our website and Submittable costs, a $7.50 per submission fee will be charged for each work submitted. All money earned will go to the monthly fee to keep our website up and running and to our submission platform, Submittable, that allows us to efficiently read, comment, connect and respond to the writers, academics, artists and multimedia artists who submit and contribute work. We appreciate your support and interest in our journal.
How to Submit
Any quotations or citations should follow MLA style formatting. Manuscripts and media should be submitted online via Submittable (see Submittable buttons above and below). The comments section of the submission form should contain your name, contact information, word count, and any contextual information you'd like us to know or that you'd like published alongside the piece. The manuscript itself should not include the author's name or other identifying information.
Please submit as a Microsoft Word (.docx or .doc) file; media should be submitted in JPEG, PNG, or MP3/MP4 format. We accept poetry and prose works (genre specific word count and page limits apply), as well as artwork and multimedia. No more than two (2) submissions per genre per review period will be considered, except in the Poetry category where up to three (3) submissions (submitted separately, as each piece is reviewed on its own) are allowed. Review the detailed submission guidelines for each category described below, then click the SUBMIT button on the top left hand corner of our guidelines page to enter your work.
NOTE: The manuscript and file should not include the author's name or other identifying information. Before you submit your entry, make sure all identifying signatures have been removed from the document. Do not use your name when naming/creating the file or your submissions will be disqualified. When filling out the form on Submittable when submitting, please feel free to use your name and affiliations in the biography section.
Please review the genre categories before submitting to make sure you’re submitting in the correct genre. We often receive poems submitted as academic papers, or personal essays submitted in poetry. We respect originality and creativity but ask that you carefully look over the genre descriptions below and submit in kind.
Fiction
We seek captivating fictional stories with unique literary voices that incorporate themes related to health, illness, medicine and patient-provider experiences. Submissions may be excerpts of a longer work and should be no more than 2,500 words. NOTE: Remove all identifying signatures from your submission (name of author, affiliations) and do not include your name in the file name.
Field Notes
Field Notes will include descriptive and narrative essays that highlight first person accounts from clinicians, patients, healthcare professionals and caregivers. These works should be of an anecdotal nature, which describes self-reflection and experiential knowledge or changed perspective acquired through the practice of narrative medicine and/or participation in narrative medicine based workshops. Submissions should be no more than 1,500 words. NOTE: Remove all identifying signatures from your submission (name of author, affiliations) and do not include your name in the file name.
Non-Fiction
Non-Fiction submissions should demonstrate clinical resonance from a personal, familial, or professional perspective and be written in a strong literary voice. While non-fiction pieces may likely contain a personal opinion or anecdote, or be written as an essay, they should highlight a particular event, time period or sequence of events experienced with a clear narrative arc. Submissions may be excerpts of a longer work, and should be no more than 2,500 words. NOTE: Remove all identifying signatures from your submission (name of author, affiliations) and do not include your name in the file name.
Poetry
Intima welcomes poetry that deals with any aspect along the illness/healing/caregiving continuum. Poems should preferably be no longer than one page in length. Please submit each poem individually--do not submit poems together in one submission or we will decline them immediately. You can submit up to three (3) poems per submission period, but we must repeat again, each poem must be submitted separately via Submittable. NOTE: Remove all identifying signatures from your submission (name of author, affiliations) and do not include your name in the file name.
As of August 2025, these are our revised submission guidelines for academic papers submitted for review. Please review and follow these guidelines to insure a smooth review process.
Academic
Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine is an open-access medical humanities journal with various submission categories for publication. The academic section publishes a variety of scholarly studies from different fields (e.g., narrative medicine, the medical and health humanities, and graphic medicine), using different methodologies from the humanities and the social sciences. Submissions from social sciences, humanities, and the arts are welcomed as they adhere to rigorous academic and ethical standards for research and stand up to the peer-reviewed process. Submission types include but are not necessarily limited to the following:
State of the Art Literature Reviews
Empirical Studies in the Social Sciences and Medicine
Cultural, Historical, Literary, and Media Analyses
Autoethnographies and Ethnographies
Submissions should be between 3,000 and 5,000 words including tables, figures, and references set in plain font, sized 12, with 1-inch margins. The formatting of the manuscript follows MLA 9th edition throughout the entire manuscript, not only in the formatting of the bibliography. As a guidance for authors, academic manuscripts, especially in the social sciences, are recommended to include the following components: a) title, b) list of key words (maximum 6), c) abstract, d) introduction, e) literature review, f) data and methods of data collection, g) analysis, h) findings and discussion, i) conclusions, and j) bibliography. Note that although these components may not exactly fit into the template of manuscripts within the humanities, they are expected to provide guidance about basic academic expectations. Then, they can be used creatively.
Abstract. The abstract (between 150-250 words) should follow the title and it summarizes the manuscript’s argument or research questions, methods, and findings. After the abstract, the body of the manuscript should begin with the heading ‘Introduction.’ The use of subheadings is highly recommended. The abstract should not be a literal repetition of what was said in the text.
Introduction. The introduction provides background information about the topic and the aims of the article, leading the reader to the main argument or research questions; it announces the methods that will be used to collect as well as to analyze the data. The introduction may also provide an overview of the manuscript.
Literature Review. The literature review is independent from the introduction. It summarizes previous research about the topic and contextualizes the argument or research question in light of the previous studies. It also justifies the importance or need of the study explaining its possible contributions to furthering knowledge on the subject. However, this point may be resumed and further elaborated in the discussion section.
Data and Methods of Data Collection. The data describes the type of data that will be analyzed in the study, such as interviews, all sorts of narratives, web site pages, literary texts, and others. The methods of data collection describe how the data was collected (e.g., interviewing, ethnography, surveys, social media) and the criteria used for data selection. Examples must be provided in the body of the manuscript and they must be original, that is, not AI generated. Although hyperlinks to videos or other internet sources could be useful, excerpts must be provided in the body of the manuscript or indicated as endnotes. When more than one excerpt is used to illustrate, it is recommended to identify the excerpts by means of letters or numbers. This contributes to clarity.
Analysis. The analytic methods explain how the data has been analyzed, for example, by means of close reading, grounded theory, narrative analysis, statistical analysis, others. The analysis also explains the preference for the selected methods instead of others. The analysis is substantiated with evidence from the data and by means of references to relevant literature. All references are provided in-text and in the bibliography following the MLA 9th edition style.
Findings or Results. After the findings have been summarized, then these are interpreted in connection with the manuscript’s argument or research question. Again, examples can be restated to support the findings and reframed. If numeric or quantitative information is presented in tables, then the information is also later summarized in writing.
Discussion. The theoretical implications of the findings are discussed in light of the relevant literature about the topic. It examines the similarities and differences of the findings from the current study with other studies. Discussion for applied pieces may focus more on recommendations for practice. A commentary of the importance of the findings as well as future directions and limitations of the study is appropriate for the discussion section.
Conclusion. The conclusion is not a repetition of what was previously said and it does not introduce new topics or subjects. It restates the manuscript’s claim and the evidence found along with the manuscript’s possible contributions, in a conclusive and specific way.
Bibliography. All citations should use MLA Style Manual 9th edition for formatting, in-text citation rules, and works cited page. Do not use end notes. Footnotes are discouraged. For assistance with MLA style, we recommend Purdue Owl’s MLA resource. Use current US American spelling. Authors may reference the free download of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary. Authors who do not follow the required style may experience delays in the acceptance process.
Ethical Commitments Research and author ethics are paramount concerns. All submissions should be original. The use of Artificial Intelligence should be properly indicated and the attributions made clear in-text references and in the bibliography. Also, submissions must not be under review at any other journal or published elsewhere at the time of submission for consideration at the Intima. Empirical studies should be approved by the author’s Institutional Review Boards and they must protect the privacy of all participants. Patient privacy as outlined on the journal’s submission guidelines page must be followed.
Peer Review and Publishing Process Submissions go through an identity-hidden, peer-review process. Therefore, all identifying markers, including file names, should be removed from the submission prior to logging in, paying the $7.50 submission fee through Submittable (the submission platform). The nominal fee secures open-access status by covering costs associated with the journal such as the website and Submittable. Intima is committed to a quick turn-around for decisions on acceptance, revise and resubmit, and reject. Typically, the timing between the deadline for submissions and decisions is 3-5 weeks and another 2-3 weeks before publication in the online, open-access journal. Authors must secure permission from the reproduction of any copyrighted image (e.g. image from book, image of a model from a journal article, etc…). NOTE: Remove all identifying signatures from your submission (name of author, affiliations) and do not include your name in the file name.
*Decisions about the submissions fall into the following categories:
Accepted, or accepted with minor revisions. The manuscript is likely to be published within the same term.
Accepted with major revisions pending the author’s agreement to revise. The manuscript may not be likely to be published within the same term.
Not accepted.
All manuscripts will receive comments and feedback regardless of the decision. When resubmitting, authors are expected to explain their acceptance or disagreement of changes in a letter to the editors.
Multimedia
Intima features audio or visual recordings that explore themes in Narrative Medicine. Please use the submissions form to upload audio recordings as MP3 files. For video submissions, use the MP4 file format. Please contact theintima@gmail.com with questions. NOTE: Remove all identifying signatures from your submission (name of author, affiliations) and do not include your name in the file name.
Studio Art
Intima welcomes painting, photography or other visual representations of narratives as opportunities to explore boundaries of health, wellness, and the power of telling. Please send images in .jpg, .gif, or .png format only, as.pdf, .psd, .tff, and .doc files aren't web-compatible. File name: Only use letters, numbers, underscores, and hyphens in file names. Other characters (like question marks, percent signs, and ampersands) may upload incorrectly or cause unexpected behavior in galleries. File size: When it comes to image size, bigger isn't always better. There is a 20 MB limit on all images, but we recommend you use image files of less than 500 KB for best results.
We allow submissions of more than one image if you are submitting a series of images that belong together under a single title, in a series or connected by a theme. Otherwise: Please do not submit separate works together. No. of images: For a narrative series, we will accept up to 6 images. Color mode: Save images in RGB color mode. Print mode (CMYK) won't render in most browsers. Color profile: Save images in the sRGB color profile. Image width: We recommend uploading images at a width of 1500 pixels. NOTE: Remove all identifying signatures from your submission (name of author, affiliations) and do not include your name in the file name.
If you have any additional questions, please email our editorial board via theintima@gmail.com.