Watts, David

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Watts, David

(H. David Watts)

PERSONAL: Married Joan Baranow; children: two sons. Education: Southwestern University, 1962; San Francisco State University, master's degree, 1992.

ADDRESSES: Home—Mill Valley, CA. Office—The Fromm Institute for Lifelong Learning, University of San Francisco, 2130 Fulton St., San Francisco, CA 94117-1080.

CAREER: Physician, poet, writer, and educator. University of California, San Francisco, Division of Gastroenterology, clinical professor of medicine. Commentator on All Things Considered, National Public Radio. Former medical host for programming on Public Broadcasting Service, Lifetime Network, and regional Fox News affiliate. Poets on Parnassus, creator; Foundation for the Humanities, founder and executive director; Writing the Medical Experience, founder and director.

AWARDS, HONORS: Talent House Press Award, 1999, for Making.

WRITINGS:

Taking the History (poetry), Nightshade Press, 1999.

Bedside Manners: One Doctor's Reflections on the Oddly Intimate Encounters between Patient and Healer (fiction), Harmony Books (New York, NY), 2005.

Also author of books of poetry, includin Making, Talent House Press; Blessing, Barnwood Press; and Slow Waking at Jenner-by-the-Sea. Poetry published in numerous periodicals, including Gettysburg Review, Antioch Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, and New Virginia Review. Collaborator on Powerful Seeds (CD-ROM; poetry and jazz collaboration), 2000. Creator of television documentary, Powerful Words: Poetry and the Art of Healing c. 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: David Watts is a gastroenterologist who is also known for his poetry and commentaries on National Public Radio. In his first prose book, Bedside Manners: One Doctor's Reflections on the Oddly Intimate Encounters between Patient and Healer Watts writes fictionalized accounts of the relationships and interactions he has had with his patients over his many years of medical practice. Watts is especially interested in the patient's mind and probes how patients think and feel about their situations, not only through what they say but also how they act. In one case, a young man suffering stomach problems is so fearful of undergoing an endoscopy that he requests heavy sedation only to continue to struggle against the procedure while essentially knocked out. Later the doctor questions the young man and learns of his terrifying ordeals at the hands of a child abuser. Like any really good doctor, Watts is also interested in physicians' thoughts and attitudes toward their patients. In another story, Watts recalls calming a patient by reading him one of his own poems.

In a review of Bedside Manners for O, Francine Prose commented that "Watts's sympathy for both physicians and their patients subtly changes our understanding of what it means to heal and be healed." A Publishers Weekly contributor noted: "All of the incidents related here, whether sad, frustrating or inconclusive, are unfailingly compelling." Donna Chavez wrote in Booklist that "it is easy to see that Watts loves words, and not just his own but his patients' as well," and a Kirkus Reviews contributor called the book "undeniably compelling."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, February 15, 2005, Donna Chavez, review of Bedside Manners: One Doctor's Reflections on the Oddly Intimate Encounters between Patient and Healer, p. 1046.

Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 2004, review of Bedside Manners, p. 1195.

O, February, 2005, review of Bedside Manners, p. 144.

Publishers Weekly, December 20, 2004, review of Bedside Manners, p. 45.