Books & things

                                         click on the image for samples or for purchase

Poetry

              At High Altitude:                                         Blessing

            31 poems of 31 words

                  Pudding house press, 2011                                                                 Barnwood Press, 2003

               

                   Second place prize                                                            Barnwood Press selection for 2003

                Sunken garden Poetry Competition                                                

                  

                                                                                 

            Taking the History                                        making

                 nightshade press, 1999                                                                   Talent house press, 1999 

        “th(is) poet’s voice is one you can trust                               winner, talent house award

                        Implicitly”                                                                                                               for 1999

                                                   . . . John Stone                                                            

“the mysteries of the body are deftly and precisely

       awakened in (these) poems of clarity”

                                                   . . . jane hirshfield

                                                                                                                                                  Spring’s Boy

                                                                                                                                         crescent publications, 1976

                                 Slow waking

                              at Jenner-by-the-sea

                            radiolarian press, 1995

                                                    

                                                                          

poetry as harvey ellis

              The color of desire                              sleep not sleep

                   Petaluma river press, 2011                                                           wolf ridge press, 2008

            “harvey ellis invents miniature explosions                               “Wow! Lovely. Stark. Rich. Strange.

       that open slowly, sublimely, in the periphery of            These poems spy out the minds quickest turns

                    consciousness.”                                                                                  and flights and falls.”

                                                         . . . ronald palmer                                                                                     . . . Li-young lee

                  

Prose

            The Orange wire problem                                Bedside Manners

                          U. Iowa Press, 2010                                                        Random house-harmony books, 2005

                         “With this new book, watts                                     “Watts’ sympathy for both physicians and

            takes his place among the most eloquent                  their patients subtly changes our understanding

              of modern physician writers.”                                 of what it means to heal and be healed.”

                                           . . . rachel naomi remen                                                    . . . Francine  Prose, O Magazine

                                                                                                                   “you’ll wish your doctor were half as attentive.”

                                                                                                                                                                                 . . . Newsweek

                                                                                                                                   

      

                                                                                                                              

Anthology

                                                                      The healing art of writing

                                                                          university of california press, 2011

                                                                                    Baranow, Dolan, & watts

                                                           Essays, poems, and prose on illness and healing

Poetry and jazz

                         powerful Seeds, 2000                              long distance, 2011

                        markison, baranow and watts                                              ellis, casey and watts

Video Documentary

                                       healing words: poetry and medicine

                                                   aired nationally on pbs,

                                                               summer 2008

                                              joan baranow, victoria chaban and david watts, producers

Essays

                      ”The healing art of writing”                             “The Heart of Poetry”

                          The Examined life, vol 1, no 1, 2011                                        San Francisco medicine, february, 2011

           

         “What Literature can do for medicine”             “My Ellis Experiment: Writing

                                                                                                    two sides of consciousness”

                         (to appear in the spring, 2012 issue of                                                            (Under review)

                               the examined Life, u. iowa press)