At an event at the University of Glamorgan on Monday June 6th, the T. S. Eliot prize-winning poet Philip Gross and former National Poet of Wales Gwyneth Lewis will be in conversation with academics Professor Maggie Kirk and Dr Martin Willis about their experiences of illness and medical care.
Leading Welsh poet Gwyneth Lewis will talk about and read from her poem A Hospital Odyssey, which describes her personal experiences as a carer for a family member diagnosed with cancer.
Philip Gross, former holder of Britain’s most prestigious poetry prize, will talk about his poems dealing with a family member’s eating disorder, and about his forthcoming book which tries to understand his father’s loss of speech to the condition aphasia.
Gwyneth and Philip will talk about illness and writing with Maggie Kirk and Martin Willis. Professor Kirk leads an important project that gathers patients’ stories of genetic disease and sets them into a web-based education framework, in order to help health professionals engage with and understand these patients’ perspectives.
Dr Willis, who has brought everyone together for the event, is the leader of a research group that is investigating attitudes towards medical care across South Wales. Working with medical history expert Dr Keir Waddington of Cardiff University, Dr Willis and his team are using evidence from history and creative writing to understand patient and carer responses to hospitals.
“There is a lot of statistical evidence about healthcare, but it is important to listen to what patients say as well”, said Dr Willis. “Projects like Professor Kirk’s and my own show how important it is to understand patient and carer experiences, and their stories can be an excellent way to do this.”
Dr Willis also pointed out that poetry is as vital a way of understanding these experiences as any other. “The poet or writer, who often uses language in unusual and interesting ways, can give us insights into what it is like to be a patient or carer that more typical medical records do not.”
In fact, as Dr Willis noted, “this kind of work is recognised in some quarters, and we have been lucky enough to have the support in staging this event of Literature Wales and the Border/Lines research group into critical and creative writing.”
The event called Poets Encounter Medicine is on at the University of Glamorgan’s campus in Treforrest from 5.30pm on Monday June 6th.
Contact Dr Richard Marsden on [email protected] for further details and to book your place.
