storytelling contest cup

Best of the Storytelling Contest

UCSF Storytellers Take Top Honors

Creativity, curiosity and extraordinary storytelling are on full display in the winners of the eighth annual Synapse Storytelling Contest, with this year’s honorees transforming experiences in medicine, science, nature, identity and everyday life into memorable works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry...

August 25, 2026

Campus

Newborn baby

Bodies

May 16, 2023

you should know birth is not quiet. i want you to feel it.

hands holding

Primary Care

May 9, 2023

Our first visit nearly brings you to tears. I hand you a diabetes diagnosis. One full point too high on...

Woman breathing in sunlight.

Words in the Wind

May 9, 2023

soft summer air skies tinted pastel orange the breeze tickles my face

Small figure in a desert

When am I?

May 2, 2023

Gabriela Canales

When am I alive? The ink line separating me from my mother Smudged by nature’s thumb

Woman sitting on chair

The Visitor

April 25, 2023

Sorry, you can’t hang your hat here. So please, hold on to your headwear.

Hands holding

Grief

April 18, 2023

Manuella Djomaleu

I stumble into the room, fumbling over sensible greetings

Man overlooking San Francisco.

Everything I Ever Hoped For

April 11, 2023

Dreams turned to memories; Golden, like pictures in the ocean sunset; It was everything I ever hoped for

Tinder phone screen

Tinderdating

April 11, 2023

Swipe, swipe, left-right, swipe, This one, that one, they’re all hype.

Sunset over field

Heavens on Sunday March

April 4, 2023

White concrete poured poorly, The edges pink and undercooked.