Lifelines, a Dartmouth literary magazine featuring both fiction and nonfiction works reflecting on medicine, is set to release its first issue this coming winter.
The magazine presents a unique opportunity for Dartmouth students, as it will be one of only a few College publications that are a joint effort of undergraduates and graduate students, according to Lifelines undergraduate representative Allison Giordano '04.
Giordano said that the nature of Lifelines makes it particularly important to involve both graduate and undergraduate students.
"It is necessary because it represents the continuum," Giardano said. "The line between pre-med and medical school is arbitrary anyway."
Lifelines is not just aimed at medical students and pre-meds, however.
"It is supposed to be for anybody -- medical, pre-medical, doctor or patient -- with reflections on the medical process," Giordano said.
Giordano said that the publication's focus is to present the human side of medicine.
"Medicine can be a very strong emotional experience, and this is an outlet for people to share that," Giordano said.
Giordano said that the magazine's primary avenue for receiving submissions will be publicity, and therefore it is has recently began the process of promoting itself.
Lifelines will hang up posters around campus and contact other student organizations -- such as the Nathan Smith Pre-Medical Society -- to spur interest, Giordano said.
At present, the publication is receiving funding from grants, certain medical school departments and the Medical School Student Council.
Giordano said, however, that even though Lifelines is receiving some funding at the present, it is running into some financial difficulty.
"We were thinking about doing a mass mailing for publicity, but we need funding for that," Giardano said.
Giordano indicated that there is some concern as to whether the publication will succeed in receiving the goal amount of articles for the Lifelines first issue.
According to Giordano, the concern is born out of the facts that Lifelines has not yet publicized itself much and that "it is pretty hard to get pre-meds and medical students to sit down and do other projects."
Right now, Lifelines has 50 pieces lined up to fill the pages of its first issue, photography and arts editor Meghan Mccoy said. Mccoy, a Dartmouth medical student, said magazine editors hope to include 100 works in the premiere edition.
Mccoy said that the submissions of yet do not fully represent the cross spectrum that editors had hoped for. She said that at present, the majority of what was turned in has come from members of the Dartmouth Medical School community -- faculty and students.
"We are hurting in the area of submissions from patients, undergraduates and people in the community," Mccoy said.
Mccoy said that it was particularly important for Lifelines to field an array of submissions because of the image of the publication drawn by of its founder, editor-in-chief Sai Li.
"His vision was to make [Lifelines] unique in getting the whole community involved, not just medical students and health care providers," Mccoy said.
Mccoy said she believes Lifelines will ultimately succeed because of its remarkable attributes.
"I think that Lifelines is a great opportunity for people to have their writings and artwork published in a forum this new and versatile," Mccoy said.
