Read an excerpt: “a pathologist's prayer”

Praise for The Hauntings

“Open this exquisite volume, The Hauntings, and you'll find the same exacting attention to language and life that Gail Waldstein paid to the still bodies of children she examined for decades as a pediatric pathologist. What unifies her medical and poetical work is a deep awarness of how ephemeral and fragile our lives are. These poems connect, sometimes with luminous joy, the many selves contained within the speaker: daughter, mother, lover, wife, doctor, grandmother, poet. They remind us that we are most beautiful when we are aware. As in Buddhist thought and practice: at first we know nothing; then we witness to understand; finally, we engage in loving action. These poems are forms of loving action. They are evocative and varied gifts we receive from the world.”

About Gail Waldstein M.D.

Gail Waldstein, M.D. practiced pediatric pathology for thirty-five years while single-parenting three children. She began to write seriously in the mid-90's. Her poetry and prose appear in Nimrod, New Letters, MacGuffin, Carve, Harpur Palate, Examined Life, Zone 3, Comstock Review, Iowa Review, and numerous other journals and anthologies. In 2013 her poem, "rapid", won first prize in the William Faulkner/William Wisdom contest. She received a Rocky Mountain Women's Foundation grant, a fellowship from the Colorado Council for the Arts, and the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation Fellowship. Two essays were nominated for a Pushcart Prize. To Quit this Calling, Firsthand Tales of a Pediatric Pathologist, a memoir, was published by Ghost Road Press in 2006. She is currently working on her first novel in Denver where she teaches creative writing and yoga.