Metabolic Poetics: Where Poetry Meets the Life Sciences

On 29 October 2026, Polish, Danish and Canadian poets and scientists will meet at Medical Museion in Copenhagen to discuss metabolism – understood both literally, as the transformation of matter within the human body, and metaphorically, as a description of the changes taking place across the entire planet. Together, they will try to cross the boundaries of their disciplines and discover what poetry can draw from biology, and what biology can gain from poetry. The event is organised by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.

Between word and matter: poetry and science in dialogue

Metabolic Poetics is an international literary event devoted to poetry that takes up the themes of ecology, the environment and the relationship between metabolism and writing in unexpected ways.

The event is led by a curatorial duo of poets, Julia Fiedorczuk and Adam Dickinson, who will moderate a discussion with scientists Mani Arumugam and Zach Gerhart-Hines from the Center for Basic Metabolic Research – a world-class research centre affiliated with Medical Museion and the University of Copenhagen. The discussion will focus on the challenges and opportunities of working at the intersection of different scientific disciplines and fields of creative practice.

The workshops will be led by Adam Bencard, a curator and philosopher affiliated with the Copenhagen Health Complexity Center, and Angela Rawlings, a Canadian-Icelandic interdisciplinary artist-researcher. Objects from the museum’s collection will be used during the workshops.

The poetry side of the event will be represented by Mette Moestrup, a Danish poet nominated for the most prestigious Nordic literary prize, Polish poets Agata Puwalska and Łukasz Woźniak, Angela Rawlings, and Danish poets Shekufe Heiberg and Luka Holmegaard.

Metabolic Poetics will culminate in a public poetry reading in the historic amphitheatre of Medical Museion, the original home of the Royal Academy of Surgery. The reading will take place on 30 October at 5 pm.

The event is accompanied by an anthology of works by Julia Fiedorczuk, Adam Dickinson, Mette Moestrup, Agata Puwalska, Łukasz Woźniak, Shekufe Heiberg, Luka Holmegaard and Angela Rawlings. The poems have been published in three languages: Polish, Danish and English.

Metabolism as a new way of understanding reality

The metabolism of our bodies is linked to the metabolism of the planet. We transform, reshape or “write” our environment through the ways in which we live in it, altering flows of matter, energy and life. In turn, the environment “writes” us, shaping our bodies, rhythms, relationships and ways of life. Metabolism allows us to think about this constant exchange between inside and outside, organism and environment, body and world.

Metabolism can be understood literally, as a set of chemical reactions, but also metaphorically, as referring to the circulation and transformation of meanings. It is therefore a compelling category through which we can try to understand the increasingly complex reality of today’s overlapping crises.

The event is inspired by Niels Bohr’s Copenhagen salons of the 1920s and 1930s, which were a space for dialogue that blurred the boundaries between disciplines and played a key role in the development of quantum theory.

Disciplines meet in an unconventional setting

Metabolic Poetics will take place at Medical Museion in Copenhagen, an institution founded in 1787 and located on the site regarded as the cradle of modern Danish medical science. For the first time in its history, Medical Museion will host an event centred on literature.

Metabolic Poetics – practical information

• Venue: Medical Museion, Bredgade 62, 1260 Copenhagen, Denmark

• Dates: 29–30 October 2026

• Event: Reading open to the public in the Medical Museion Amphitheatre; 30 October, 5–7 pm

• Poets: Adam Bencard, Mette Moestrup, Shekufe Heiberg, Luka Holmegaard, Julia Fiedorczuk, Agata Puwalska, Łukasz Woźniak, Adam Dickinson, Angela Rawlings

• Scientists: Mani Arumugam, Zach Gerhart-Hines

• Organiser: Adam Mickiewicz Institute

• Partners: Medical Museion, University of Copenhagen, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Copenhagen