May 2012: BBC Radio 4 - Women’s Hour - 2012 Open winner Mary Bush interviewed and reading her winning poem Women’s Work
Open International Hippocrates winner Mary Bush was interviewed on 30th May 2012 on BBC Woman’s Hour.
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.
