In London today, after a lively discussion at the FPM, judges broadcaster Martha Kearney, US poet Marilyn Hacker and medical researcher Professor Rod Flower FRS have agreed the short-list for the 2012 Hippocrates Awards for Poetry and Medicine. The NHS-related short list includes one poet from Scotland and two from England. The Open international short-list includes one poet from the USA and two from the UK. Themes ranged from identity and immunity to psychiatry and alienation, and from global health to medicine in archaeology, and the role of women in health.
The judges also agreed commendations for 20 entries in the NHS category and 20 in the Open International category - 2 from Australia, 1 from New Zealand, 7 from the USA and 10 from the UK. Commended entries considered themes from birth to imaging, cancer, health and disease in art, history of medicine and illness in the family.
Awards will be announced by the judges on Saturday 12th May in London at an International Symposium on Poetry and Medicine at the Henry Wellcome rooms, with speakers and readers from the USA, France, Denmark, Russia, Cyprus, Greece and the UK.Read the list and other information here.