Saying the World reflects Peter Pereira's experience as a physician to the urban poor—including refugees, immigrants, and the elderly—at High Point Community Clinic in Seattle. The poems also explore his complex background, including a sister's death, family relationships, and life as a childless gay man.
In honoring Peter Pereira with the Hayden Carruth Award, Gregory Orr and Sam Hamill wrote: "Pereira has a magic touch like that of William Carlos Williams: the ability to be a doctor and poet
Peter Pereira is a family physician in Seattle and was a founding editor of Floating Bridge Press. He provides primary care to an urban poor population at High Point Community Clinic in West Seattle. His poems have appeared in Poetry, Prairie Schooner, New England Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, Journal of the American Medical Association, and have been anthologized in 180 More: Extraordinary Poems for Everyday, and the 2007 Best American Poetry. They have also been featured online at Verse Daily and Poetry Daily, as well as on National Public Radio’s The Writer’s Almanac. His books include What’s Written on the Body (Copper Canyon 2007), which was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award, Saying the World (Copper Canyon, 2003), which won the 2002 Hayden Carruth Award, and the limited edition chapbook The Lost Twin (Grey Spider 2000).
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