Timber Weber, Academic Commons & Scott Library Staffer, Wins 2nd Place in 2024 Yeo Prize
Congratulations to Timber Weber, Collections Management Technician, in the Academic Commons’ Scott Memorial Library, for winning 2nd place in the Drs. Theresa and Charles Yeo Writing Prize! This year’s writing competition theme was the LGBTQ+ experience.
The Eakins Writers’ Council announced the four winners recently, with 1st place going to Sara Beachy, Postdoctoral Fellow in Family & Community Medicine, and a 3rd place tie for Alex Hernandez, Resident in Pediatrics, and Malachi Lilly, a patient involved in the Jefferson Pride Program.
In addition to an Academic Commons staff member coming in 2nd place, AC staff members Liz Declan and Pam Walter sit on the Eakins Writers’ Council editorial board. Tony Frisby and DaVonne Armstrong served as judges for the anonymized submissions.
You will have a chance to read the winning submissions (and honorable mentions) in the 5th issue of Evanescent, which will be published soon. In the meantime, help us celebrate Timber and the other writers on Thursday, April 25, at 5:30 p.m. in the Eakins Lounge at Jefferson Alumni Hall (JAH) located at 1020 Locust Street, Philadelphia. The event is open to all.
This is the first year the call for submissions extended beyond Jefferson staff, faculty, students, and volunteers of Jefferson to include patients. Also, as part of the Eakins Writers’ Council’s mission to promote writing beyond the borders of Jefferson, they partnered with William Way LGBT Community Center to broaden the call for submissions to the community and judge the prize. The Writers’ Council and Judging Panel were moved by all the entries, many of which were deeply honest, vulnerable, humbling, raw, and joyful. The Council launched the Yeo Prize because they believe writing can be empowering, therapeutic, exploratory, provide an outlet for advocacy, and much more. They hope that sharing these essays and poems can connect us all in meaningful ways.
The Yeo Writing Prize is an initiative of the Eakins Writers Council, whose mission is:
- To encourage and enable writing as a conduit for healing, self-reflection, and interconnectedness both for the individual and the community.
- To highlight and value the diverse voices of the broader Jefferson community, including Jefferson patients and the communities they represent, and to foster a sense of belonging in these individuals and communities.
- To promote and demystify writing as a powerful tool for self-empowerment for all in the broader Jefferson community, not only those who consider themselves writers.
- To communicate and celebrate our diverse voices, stories, and experiences to the larger community.