Cortney Davis, a Nurse Practitioner, is the author of three full-length poetry collections: “Taking Care of Time,” winner of the Wheelbarrow Poetry Prize (Michigan State University Press); “Leopold’s Maneuvers” (University of Nebraska Press) winner of the Prairie Schooner Poetry Prize; and “Details of Flesh” (Calyx Books). Her non-fiction publications include “When the Nurse Becomes a Patient: A Story in Words and Images” and “The Heart’s Truth: Essays on the Art of Nursing.” She is co-editor of three anthologies of poetry and prose by nurses, most recently “Learning to Heal: Reflections on Nursing School in Poetry and Prose” (Kent State University Press). Her poems have appeared in journals including Calyx; Poetry, Superstition Review, Descant, Sun, Bellevue Literary Review, Crazyhorse, Poetry East, Underground Voices, Rattle, and others.

She has served as a faculty member at workshops and seminars including at Sarah Lawrence College, NY; the Mountain Writers Center in Oregon; University of Colorado; Barnard College and Columbia University, NY; Portland State University and other venues. She has been a poet-in-the- schools, has taught writing workshops to nurses, physicians and Hospice volunteers, and has presented readings throughout the United States, including Washington DC, Ohio, Boston, New York, South Carolina, San Francisco, Seattle, Connecticut, and Denver.

Cortney is the recipient of an NEA Poetry Fellowship, three CT Commission on Tourism and the Arts Poetry Grants, an Independent Publishers’ Silver Medal, a Living Now Gold Medal in Non-Fiction, The CT Center for the Book Award in Non-Fiction, an Independent Publisher’s Benjamin Franklin Gold Medal in Non-Fiction, and five Books of the Year awards from the American Journal of Nursing. In 2007, she was awarded a Nightingale Award for excellence in nursing. Cortney serves as the first poet laureate of Bethel, CT 2019-2021. www.cortneydavis.com