Medicine’s literary links put under microscope by writer

Published on 08/02/2012 12:00

AN acclaimed American poet is to use a six-month appointment at Edinburgh University to explore links between literature and medicine.

Professor Marianne Boruch, who is also a respected literary critic, will consider how the work of poet John Keats and Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle reflects each writer’s fascination with medicine.

As the university’s first Fulbright-Scotland visiting professor, she will lead a series of lectures and seminars and will be actively involved in the university’s creative writing programme.

Professor Boruch, from Purdue University in the United States, will also spend time at the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh to help her develop a new collection of her own poetry on the theme of medical history.

The Fulbright programmme is one of the world’s most prestigious academic exchange programmes.