Quotes

‘This project is truly awesome. A numinous tapestry of poems, quotes, and profound musings on life, science, God, and the genome…Thanks for the gift you are giving the world.’ Francis Collins, Head, United States Human Genome Project

‘Perhaps the most compelling fact surrounding the new science of the human genome is that letters, words - language itself -  offer the clearest media through which both the scientific and the lay mind can begin to apprehend the inner secret of life. In making this the central metaphor of her extraordinary work,  The Human Genome: Poems on the Book of Life, Gillian Ferguson takes poetry to extremes it has not encountered since the late work of Hugh MacDiarmid, or the ongoing work of Edwin Morgan.  Her achievement brings art and science together in a challenging and exhilarating way. Vast ambition and its triumphant achievement.’ Richard Holloway, Chairman, Scottish Arts Council

‘The reading of the human genome was a great moment in the history of life - the first time in four billion years that a creature has read its own recipe. It deserves to be hymned by poets, and Gillian Ferguson may be its Homer.’ Matt Ridley, Science Correspondent, The Economist, Daily Telegraph; Author, Genome; The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters, Fourth Estate

‘Wonderfully ambitious…I am carried along by the Whitmanesque velocity and the sheer choric embrace of it all… Cathedralesque.’ Paul Keegan, Poetry Editor, Faber

‘A vast celebration of the human genome, and all genomes - and a passionate declaration of the unity of life as revealed by comparative genomics.  And of the importance of sharing everything freely. I hope she continues to evolve in her writings, and finds new wonders wherever her exploration takes her.’ Sir John Sulston, Leader, UK Human Genome Project

‘Any attempt to explore connections between scientific, artistic, and religious imagination is to be enthusiastically welcomed, for it is through multi-dimensional productive imagination that we discover the meaning of our world and ourselves. The Human Genome Poetry Project is to be applauded – it succeeds in bravely harmonising discourses and insights that are so often deemed to be at variance.’ John Cornwell, Director, Science and Human Dimension Project, Jesus College, Cambridge University