UArts Professor Shortlisted for Prestigious Poetry Prize

Mara Adamitz Scrupe, a professor of fine art at University of the Arts, is one of only four finalists to be shortlisted for this year’s International FPM Hippocrates Open Prize for Poetry and Medicine. Scrupe was recognized for her poem “Excision,” which was inspired by her experience of having a biopsy.

The Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine is one of the poetry awards with the highest value in the world for a single unpublished poem—approximately $7,000. This year, there were more than 10,000 entries from nearly 70 countries. 

Scrupe is the author of five poetry collections: BEAST (NFSPS Press, 2014), winner of the 2014 Stevens Manuscript Prize; Sky Pilot (Finishing Line Press, 2012); Magnalia (2018 Eyewear Press Chapbook Competition); and a daughter’s aubade/ sailing out from Sognefjord, winner of the Fledge Poetry Chapbook Competition (Middle Creek Press, 2019). Most recently she won the 2018 Grindstone Literary International Poetry Competition and the Brighthorse Press Poetry Book Prize for her manuscript in the bare bones house of was, which will be published in late 2019. 

“‘Excision, a portion of a longer poem, was composed almost in its entirety during a biopsy I underwent for a possible malignant breast tumor,” Scrupe explains. “It occurred in the midst of several other medical crises that had emerged during a particularly harrowing period. Happily, the results were negative. But the experience caused me to rethink many aspects of my life—past, present and future.”

“Excision” will be included in the 2019 Hippocrates Prize Anthology.

Winners of the FPM Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine award will be announced May 17, 2019, at the 2019 Hippocrates Awards Ceremony in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, as part of the 10th annual Hippocrates Poetry and Medicine Symposium.