Publication Bio
Books: Taking Care of Time (Wheelbarrow Books, MSU Press, 2018); Learning To Heal: Reflections on Nursing School in Poetry and Prose (Kent State University Press, 2018); When the Nurse Becomes a Patient: A Story in Words and Images (Kent State University Press, 2015); To Begin Again (novel, OakTara Press, 2010); The Heart’s Truth: Essays on the Art of Nursing (Kent State University Press, 2009); Conversion / Return (poetry, Finishing Line Press, 2009); Leopold’s Maneuvers (poetry, University of Nebraska Press, 2004); Intensive Care: More Poetry and Prose by Nurses (co-editor, University of Iowa Press, 2003), I Knew a Woman: the Experience of the Female Body (memoir, Random House, 2001 / Ballantine Books, 2002), Willy Nilly Poems for Children (Small Poetry Press, 2000), Details of Flesh (poetry, CALYX Books, 1997), Between the Heartbeats: Poetry and Prose by Nurses (co-editor, University of Iowa Press, 1995), The Body Flute (poetry, Adastra Press, 1994)
Poetry Broadsides: Cloudburst (Bull Thistle Press), The Nurse’s Pockets (Mad River Press)
Poetry in Literary and Online Journals: Alaska Quarterly Review, Alimentum: the literature of food, Alhambra Poetry Calendar, Amaranth, Antigonish Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Calyx, Clackamas Literary Review, Colere, Connecticut River Review, Courier International, Crazyhorse, Descant, Ekphrasis, Embers, Freshwater Review, Hamilton Stone Review, Hanging Loose, The Healing Muse, Heliotrope, Hudson Review, Jack the Daw, Kalliope, Massachusetts Review, Ms., MSM: Mens Sana Monographs, New York Times, www.newversenews.com, The Other Voice International Project, Ontario Review, Pikestaff Forum, Pivot, Poetry, Poetry Daily, Poetry East, Poets On, Pool, Prairie Schooner, Rattle, Re-Publish, River City, 13th Moon, Salt River Review, Second Glance, Sentence: a journal of prose poetics, Sifrut, Slow Dancer, Sojourner, The Sun, The Underground Review, www.undergroundvoices.com, Viet Nam Generation, Witness, Women’s Review of Books, The Writer’s Almanac, Yankee, and others.
Poetry in Anthologies: A Fierce Brightness: Twenty-five Years of Women’s Poetry (Calyx Books), A Life in Medicine: a Literary Anthology (The New Press), The Arduous Touch (Purdue University Press), Are You Experienced: Baby Boom Poets at Midlife (University of Iowa Press), Articulations: The Body and Illness in Poetry (University of Iowa Press), The Best of the Bellevue Literary Review (Bellevue Literary Press), Between the Heartbeats: Poetry and Prose by Nurses (University of Iowa Press), Bittersweet Legacy: Creative Responses to the Holocaust (University Press of America), Cracking the Earth (Calyx Books), Family Reunion: Poems about Parenting Grown Children (Chicory Blue Press), Good Poems: American Places (Viking); Grow Old Along with Me, the Best is Yet to Be (Papier-Mache Press), Imagine What It’s Like (University of Hawaii Press); In My Life: Encounters with the Beatles (Fromm International), Intensive Care: More Poetry and Prose by Nurses (University of Iowa Press), Mourning Our Mothers (Andrew Mountain Press), Poetry from Sojourner: a Feminist Anthology (University of Illinois Press) Stories of Illness and Healing: Women Write their Bodies (Kent State University Press); Ten Years of Medicine and the Arts (The Association of Medical Colleges), Truth & Lies: an Anthology of Poems (Henry Holt), Uncharted Lines: Poetry from the American Medical Association (Boaz Publications), and others.
Poetry in Nursing and Medical Journals: Academic Medicine, American Journal of Nursing, American Nurse Today, Annals of Internal Medicine, Ars Medica, Caduceus, Connecticut Nursing News, Contexts: a Forum for Medical Humanities, International Journal of Arts/Medicine, The Journal of the American Medical Association, The Journal of Emergency Medicine, The Journal of Medical Humanities, Kaleidoscope: International Magazine of Literature, Fine Arts, and Disability, The Healing Muse, Lancet, Literature and Medicine, Nursing and Healthcare Perspectives, Reflections on Nursing, RN Magazine, the Journal of the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing, YearOne, and others.
Essays, Book Reviews, and Short Fiction in Literary, Nursing, and Medical Journals: Academic Medicine; American Journal of Nursing; Calyx; Discover Magazine; Literature and Medicine; Journal of Medical Humanities; New York Times; Literature, Medicine and the Arts Online Data Base; Lumina; Nursing and Health Care Perspectives; Rattle; Reflections on Nursing; Poets & Writers; RN Magazine; Journal of Poetry Therapy; Prairie Schooner; Salt River Review; Self Magazine; Social Issues and Health Review; So To Speak; Witness; and others.
Book Chapters: “Nurses’ Poetry: Expanding the Literature and Medicine Canon” in Teaching Literature and Medicine, Edited by Anne Hunsaker Hawkins and Marilyn Chandler McEntyre. Modern Language Association: New York (2000); “Body Teaching” in The Teacher’s Body: Embodiment, Authority, and Identity in the Academy, Edited by Diane P. Freedman and Martha Stoddard Holmes. State Univ. of New York Press: New York (2003); “Cortney Davis’s Choices” in Editors’ Choices from the Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database, Edited by Felice Aull. New York University School of Medicine: New York (2003); “Nurse Practitioner and Writer: The Best of Both Worlds” in Nurse Entrepreneurs: Tales of Nurses in Business, Edited by Patricia Ann Bemis. National Nurses in Business Association, Inc.: Rockledge, FL (2004); “Cortney Davis: poems and commentary” in The Poetry of Nursing: Poems and Commentaries of Leading Nurse-Poets, Edited by Judy Schaefer. The Kent State University Press: Kent, Ohio (2006); “Chasing Fire Engines” in Return to the House of God: Medical Resident Education 1978-2008, edited by Martin Kohn and Carol Donley. Kent State University Press, 2008; “Where Did It Go?” in Untwining: perspectives on the death of a twin before birth, Edited by Althea Hayton. Wren Publications: St. Albans, U.K. (2007); “Becoming Flora: When the Narrative is Our Own” in Stories of Illness and Healing: Women Write their Bodies, Edited by S. DasGupta and M. Hurst, Kent State University Press, 2007, and others.
Awards: NEA poetry fellowship; three Connecticut Commission on the Arts poetry grants; grant from the Money for Women / Barbara Deming Memorial Fund; the Anna Davidson Rosenberg Award in Poetry from the Judah Magnes Museum in California; CT Center for the Book Non-Fiction Prize; CT Center for the Book Poetry Prize; the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry; six American Journal of Nursing Books of the Year Awards; an Independent Publisher Book Award Silver Medal in Non-Fiction; A Benjamin Franklin Gold Medal in Non-Fiction; a Tillie Olsen Creative Writing Award, and others.
Appearances: Readings and poetry workshops given throughout the United States, most recently in Pennsylvania, Washington DC, Ohio, Boston, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Connecticut and Denver. List of readings and workshops available upon request.
Visiting Writer and Seminar Leader: Hiram College’s Center for Literature, Medicine, and the Health Care Professions, Ohio; Mountain Writers Center, Oregon; University of Texas Medical Center, Galveston; Northeastern Ohio University’s College of Medicine; University of Colorado; Portland State University; Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NY; Columbia University Medical Center, NY; University of Maryland; Yale University, CT.; University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown; Naugatuck Valley Community College, CT.; Freshwater Poetry Festival, Enfield, CT.; Stony Brook School of Medicine, Long Island; Fairfield University, CT; and other colleges and conferences.
Interviews: NBC TV, NPR, WPKN, Fox 5, MediaOne Cable TV’s “The Bookworm,” Voice of America, Metro Radio “Eye on Books,” KBOO, Cable Channel 12 News, ReachMD, WCPN-FM, Sirius/XM Radio, and other radio and TV programs.
Updated April 2020