The Hippocrates Initiative
for Poetry and Medicine
About Us
The Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine was founded in 2009 by Professors Donald Singer and Michael Hulse. The founders wished to draw together national and international perspectives on three major historical and contemporary themes uniting the disciplines of poetry and medicine: medicine as inspiration for the writings of poets; effects of poetic creativity on the experience of illness by patients, their families, friends, and carers; and poetry as therapy.
2025 Hippocrates Prize:
Prize Winners
Open Category
1st Prize: Marc Woodward, England
The Cancer Garden
Marc Woodward is a poet and ex-musician writing from the English West Country. He has been widely published in journals and on-line and is the author of five poetry collections, the most recent being Shaking The Persimmon Tree and Grace Notes both published by Seacrow Press in the USA.
He can be found at www.marcwoodwardpoetry.blogspot.com
He was diagnosed with young onset Parkinson’s Disease in 2016 and is currently undergoing treatment for Prostate Cancer, as referenced in his winning poem The Cancer Garden.
2nd Prize: Tim Waller, USA
Hat Trick
Tim Waller, an American, studies in London and writes about his Southern and Midwestern roots. His poetry has been published in Europe, Asia, and the US. He has been successful in competitions.
An elementary Creative Arts teacher, he has been a featured poet at many London venues, including Palmers Green, The Poetry Cafe, Enfield, Troubadour, Torriano, Fourth Friday, and the Dugdale. Currently, a member of CUP, Covent Garden Poetry Stanza, Enfield Poetry Stanza, Barnes Poetry Stanza, and Torriano Poetry Stanza, Tim enjoys swimming and bicycling along the Thames.
3rd Prize (Joint): Dawn Manning, USA
Hold it Again to the Light
Dawn Manning resides in Pennsylvania, in the former tollhouse of a covered bridge where she writes, consults, and metalsmiths. She is the author of Postcards from the Dead Letter Office (Burlesque Press). Honors for her work include the Hugh J. Luke Award, the Beullah Rose Poetry Prize, the San Miguel Writers’ Poetry Prize, and the Edith Garlow Poetry Prize.
Her poems have appeared through 32 Poems, Ecotone, Pleiades, Prairie Schooner, Verse Daily and other literary journals.
Find her at dawnmanning.com.
3rd Prize (Joint): Susan Dines, USA
My Husband’s Surgeon Speaks to Me Pre-op
Susan Dines is a poet and children’s book author. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in North Dakota Quarterly, Kestrel, Slab, Smoky Blue Literary and Arts Magazine, Comstock Review, and elsewhere.
She has been awarded scholarships from the Bennington Writing Seminars and the Bread Loaf Environmental Writers’ Conference. Dines’s writing was chosen as the 2023 University of Iowa Hawkeye Haiku contest winner, shortlisted for the Fish Poetry Prize, and placed third in the 2021 Tucson Festival of Books Literary Awards.
Her debut chapbook, Late Arrival, is forthcoming from Kelsay Books.
Health Professionals
1st Prize: Sue Proffitt, England
Last time outside
Sue Proffitt lives by the coast in South Devon, UK. She has an M.A. in Creative Writing, is a Hawthornden Fellow and has been published in a number of magazines, anthologies and competitions.
A psychotherapist for over twenty years in the NHS, Higher Education and the voluntary sector, she now works as a trainer for www.traumainformedschools.co.uk, teaching therapeutic skills to schools and community organisations working with troubled and traumatised young people.
She has two poetry collections published: Open After Dark (Oversteps, 2017) and The Lock-Picker (Palewell Press, 2021). She is working on her third collection.
2nd Prize: Susan Thomas, England
MAPPING FOR PRESSURE ULCERS
Susan Thomas is often inspired by her role as a Staff Nurse on the inpatient unit of a hospice where she has worked for 34 years and uses poetry as part of a reflective process.
She was awarded the Hippocrates Prize in 2022 and was commended in 2021 and 2024. She has won the Arts University of Bournemouth Prize, and been longlisted for the National Poetry Competition and The Richmond Prize. She has had work displayed as part of an art exhibition Shrouded in Silence with Whistlestop Arts and also the National Trust.
She enjoys helping organise poetry walks and reading en plein air with Mole Valley Poets. She has a new puppy and lives in West Sussex.
3rd Prize (Joint): Celeste Lipkes, USA
Gunner
Celeste Lipkes is a writer, teacher, and psychiatrist residing in Asheville, North Carolina. Her first book of poems, Radium Girl (2023), was published through the Wisconsin Poetry Series. Her prose has appeared in Electric Lit, The Rumpus, Plume, 32 Poems, and elsewhere.
For more, visit: http://www.celestelipkes.com/
3rd Prize (Joint): Neil Deasy, England
The London at Night
Young Poets
1st Prize: Yuna Lee, USA
Nociception for a cockroach and a cricket
This poem was inspired by the strange, metaphysical experience I had in a neuroscience class. While we were learning about how we clinically experience pain by dissecting various insects, I instead learned another form of pain sensation: empathy.
Hippocrates Initiative Committee
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Dr Luz Mar Gonzalez-Arias
PRESIDENT
Luz Mar Gonzalez-Arias is a Senior Lecturer in English and Irish Studies at the University of Oviedo, Spain.
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Dr Eleanor Singer
TREASURER
Eleanor (Ellie) Singer is a doctor training to specialise in Infectious Diseases and Medical Microbiology in Glasgow.
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Dr Ramsay Singer
SECRETARY
Ramsay Singer is a doctor specialising in cancer medicine, based in London.
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