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| Mary Bush: 2012 Awards ©Hippocrates Press |
She won the £5000 2012 International Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine for her poem Women’s Work.
In 2011, Mary Bush earned a Ph.D. in Creative Writing/Poetry from the University of North Texas while continuing to work in my long-term career as a project manager in the Information Technology industry. She said 'I write poetry for pleasure, and I have always been interested in the overlap of art and science—whether writing “scientific” poetry or “elegant” software. My husband and I have three adult children, one of whom is autistic, and his unique use of language fascinates and inspires me. We live in a ramshackle old house in a small town in North Texas, where my husband plays loud guitar and I write poems'.
She added: ‘I was inspired to write this poem by reading about the tissue engineering work of Dr Doris Taylor. I was taken first by the fact that a woman was a leader and spokesperson for this cutting-edge scientific work and secondly by the notion of using a detergent or shampoo as part of the engineering process, as in a commercial context, detergent and shampoo are stereotypically considered "women's products." Everything about tissue engineering seemed beautiful to me, from the ethereal nature of the scaffolds to the idea of re-use and rebirth implicit in the process.’
See more on the 2012 Hippocrates Awards.
Judges broadcaster Martha Kearney, Paris-based US poet Marilyn Hacker and medical researcher Professor Rod Flower FRS announced the 2012 Hippocrates Awards for Poetry and Medicine at the Wellcome Collection in London on 12th May.
The £5000 open international Hippocrates first prize went to American poet Mary Bush from North Texas for her multi-layered poem reflecting on the role of women at the forefront of medical science.
Writer-in-healthcare Shelley McAlister won the £1000 second open prize for a poem on health inequalities, and academic and writer Kelly Grovier won the £500 third open prize for a poem on medical archaeology.
The £5000 NHS-related Hippocrates first prize went to former nurse Nick MacKinnon from Winchester for a poem illustrating the progression over the past century of treatment for disorders of the mind. The £1000 NHS-related second prize was awarded to medical librarian Andy Jackson for a poem inspired both by volunteering for research and by Hancock's 'The Blood Donor'. Former dentist Jane Kirwan won the £500 third prize for a poem on multiple worlds of asylum, centred on Czech
poet Ivan Blatný.
See also the online link to order the 2012 Hippocrates Anthology of the 46 winning poems by Mary Bush, her fellow winners and the commended entrants.
See the report in New Scientist on the 2012 International Awards Symposium and other awards.
