He received his MD from the university of Washington in 1987 and completed his residency in Family Medicine at the University of Washington Medical Center in 1990. He currently provides primary care to an urban poor population at High Point Community Clinic, in West Seattle. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in numerous literary magazines, including JAMA, North Dakota Quarterly, Poetry, Poetry East, Seattle Review, The Virginia Quarterly Review, and Willow Springs; and in the anthology To come to light: Perspectives on Chronic Illness in Modern Literature. He was the winner of a 1997 “Discovery”/The Nation Award, and his first chapbook, The Lost Twin, was published by Grey Spider Press in 2000. Saying the World, won the 2002 Hayden Carruth award from Copper Canyon Press.