Gayle Brandeis

Biography

Gayle Brandeis is the author, most recently, of the essay collection Drawing Breath: Essays on Writing, the Body, and Loss (Overcup Books), the memoir The Art of Misdiagnosis (Beacon Press), and the novel in poems, Many Restless Concerns (Black Lawrence Press), which was shortlisted for the Shirley Jackson Award. Her earlier books include the poetry collection The Selfless Bliss of the Body (Finishing Line Press), the craft book Fruitflesh: Seeds of Inspiration for Women Who Write (HarperOne) and the novels The Book of Dead Birds (HarperCollins), winner of the PEN/Bellwether Prize judged by Barbara Kingsolver, Toni Morrison, and Maxine Hong Kingston, Self Storage (Ballantine), Delta Girls (Ballantine), and My Life with the Lincolns (Henry Holt BYR), chosen as a state-wide read in Wisconsin. Gayle’s essays, poetry, and short fiction have been widely published in places such as The Guardian, The New York Times, The Washington Post, O (The Oprah Magazine), The Rumpus, Salon, and more. She has received numerous honors, including the Columbia Journal Nonfiction Award, a Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Award, Notable Essays in Best American Essays 2016, 2019, and 2020, the QPB/Story Magazine Short Story Award and the 2018 Multi Genre Maverick Writer Award. She was named “A Writer Who Makes a Difference” by The Writer Magazine, and served as Inlandia Literary Laureate from 2012-2014, focusing on bringing writing workshops to underserved communities. She teaches in the low residency MFA programs at Antioch University and University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe.

Published Works

Poetry
Many Restless Concerns (Black Lawrence Press, 2020)
The Selfless Bliss of the Body (Finishing Line Press, 2017)
Dictionary Poems (Pudding House Press, 2002)

Essay Collection
Drawing Breath: Essays on Writing, the Body, and Loss (Overcup Press, 2023)

Novels
Delta Girls (Ballantine, 2010)
My Life with the Lincolns (Henry Holt Books for Young Readers, 2010)
Self Storage (Ballantine, 2007)
The Book of Dead Birds (HarperCollins, 2003)

Craft Book
Fruitflesh: Seeds of Inspiration for Women Who Write (HarperOne, 2002)

Links to Sample Works

• The Writer’s Almanac, “Bread and Butter” and “Feeling East”
• The Nervous Breakdown, “Jellyfish” 

Subject Matter

Aging, Art & Ekphrasis, Childhood, Death, Eastern Europe, Environment & Climate Crisis, Family, Gender, Gender Violence, Grief & Elegy, History, Intergenerational Trauma, Jewish Mysticism, Jewishness, Loss, Love, Marriage, Misogyny, Motherhood/Fertility, Narrative, Nature, Parenting, Politics, Reproductive Justice, Sexuality, Trauma, Whiteness, Yiddish Language & Yidishkayt, Multidisciplinary, Feminism, Mental Illness, Disability.