Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database

Cortney Davis holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in English literature; her nursing credentials are from Cornell University. She writes: "As both a nurse practitioner and poet, I find myself drawn to the intersection of science and creativity: how sensitivity to story and metaphor might help us to be better, more alert caregivers, and how caregiving--familiarity with the body and its mysteries--might help us to write with passion and humility. My particular interest in the literature and medicine arena is the writing of nurses and other non-physician caregivers. I especially enjoy helping these professionals discover their own creative writing abilities; their poems and prose reinforce my belief that, in caregiving, all our points of view are relevant." Right now I'm working three days a week in a university health center and writing (or trying to) on my days off. My first non-fiction book, I Knew a Woman: The Experience of the Female Body, was published by Random House in 2001 and in paperback by Ballantine Books in 2002, when it also won the Connecticut Center for the Book Prize in Non-fiction. With my colleague, Judy Schaefer, I've co-edited two anthologies, Intensive Care: More Poetry and Prose by Nurses (University of Iowa Press, 2003) and Between the Heartbeats: Poetry and Prose by Nurses (University of Iowa Press, 1995).  My poetry collections include The Body Flute (Adastra Press, 1994), Details of Flesh (Calyx Books, 1997) and Leopold's Maneuvers (University of Nebraska Press, 2004), winner of the 2003 Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry.  My most recent non-fiction book is The Heart's Truth: Essays on the Art of Nursing (Kent State University Press, 2009) and a chapbook of poems, Conversion / Return, is forthcoming in August, 2009 from Finishing Line Press.

Home Page: http://www.cortneydavis.com

The Arduous Touch by A. M. & Brown, K. H., eds. Haddad

Blue Lace Socks by Jeanne Bryner

Dehiscence by Amy Marie Haddad

What the Nurse Likes by Cortney Davis