Gayle Brandeis

MFA Alumna and Faculty Member Publishes an Essay in the “New York Times”

Gayle Brandeis blue backgroundGayle Brandeis recently published a powerful piece in the New York Times called What to Say (and Not to Say) to Someone Grieving a Suicide. Brandeis is an acclaimed author and poet and an alumna of the MFA in Creative Writing Program.

Her memoir, The Art of Misdiagnosis: Surviving My Mother’s Suicide, is a memoir of her complicated family history and her mother’s suicide. It was published this past November.

Her other novels include The Book of Dead Birds, which won Barbara Kingsolver’s Bellwether Prize for Fiction of Social Engagement; Self StorageDelta Girls; and My Life with the Lincolns, which received a Silver Nautilus Book Award and was chosen as a statewide read in Wisconsin. Other notable works include Fruitflesh: Seeds of Inspiration for Women Who Write and The Selfless Bliss of the Body, a poetry collection recently released by Finishing Line Press. Her poetry, essays and short fiction have received many honors, including a Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Award and a Notable Essay in Best American Essays 2016.

In 2017, she received Antioch University Los Angeles’ Distinguished Alumna of the Year Award.

Read the article here.