Drawing Breath: Essays on Writing, the Body, and Loss
Drawing Breath: Essays on Writing, the Body, and Loss, PEN/Bellwether Prize-winning writer Gayle Brandeis’ essays explore both the writing life and the embodied life, along with potent intersection between the two. From the title essay investigating the connection between writing and breath to the final essay, which delves into Brandeis’ experience with long-haul Covid and its impact on her creative voice, this collection is infused with the urgency of mortality, thrumming with grief, authenticity, and a deep love for both language and the world of the senses.
What People are Saying about Drawing Breath
"Drawing Breath is a necessary salve in our tumultuous times." -Suzanne Roberts, Animal Bodies: On Death, Desire, and Other Difficulties
"Drawing Breath is both intimate and inventive, deeply personal and culturally relevant. This book, in a word, is breathtaking."
—Maggie Smith, Goldenrod
This biblio-essay collection is a joy! Brandeis lifts up a diverse group of women writers by setting their words alongside her own, creating a chorus of women giving voice to silenced stories. I devoured this book.”
— Jill Talbot, The Way We Weren’t: A Memoir
About the Author
Gayle Brandeis is the author most recently of the novel in poems Many Restless Concerns (Black Lawrence Press), shortlisted for the Shirley Jackson Award, and the memoir The Art of Misdiagnosis (Beacon Press), as well as several novels, a poetry collection, and a writing guide. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, Salon, and more. Awards include the PEN/Bellwether Prize and the Columbia Journal Nonfiction Prize. She teaches in the low residency MFA programs at University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe and Antioch University.
