Dawn Raffel

Author of The Strange Case of Dr. Couney: How A Mysterious European Showman Saved Thousands of American Babies

7+ Works 246 Members 12 Reviews

About the Author

Dawn Raffel is a journalist, memoirist, and short-story writer whose work has been widely anthologized. She has taught creative writing in the MFA program at Columbia University; at summer literary seminars in St. Petersburg, Russia; Montreal; and Vilnius, Lithuania; and at the Center for Fiction show more in New York. show less

Works by Dawn Raffel

The Secret Life of Objects (2012) 30 copies

Carrying the Body: A Novel (2002) 25 copies

Further Adventures in the Restless Universe (2010) 25 copies

In The Year Of The Long Division: Stories (1995) 24 copies

Boundless as the Sky (2023) 6 copies

Hungary (in The Lifted Brow 6 - SCOTT) 1 copy

Work Explorer

Associated Works

xo Orpheus: Fifty New Myths (2013) — Contributor — 280 copies

The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories (2004) — Contributor — 267 copies

Providence Noir (2015) — Contributor — 47 copies

The Best Small Fictions 2015 (2015) — Contributor — 27 copies

Wild Women (1854) — Contributor — 23 copies

The Best Small Fictions 2016 (2016) — Contributor — 19 copies

A Manner of Being: Writers on Their Mentors (2015) — Contributor — 12 copies

The Quarterly, Summer 1994 (1995) — Contributor — 2 copies

Tagged

110513 (1) 20th century (2) _gr-import (1) American (2) American history (4) biography (4) carnivals (2) Coney Island (2) exhibition (2) fiction (9) general fiction (4) goodreads (2) Gordon Lish (2) history (13) history of medicine (2) Imposters and impostures (1) incubators (2) Kindle (2) Kindle Books I Own (1) Lish (3) martin couney (1) medical (2) medical history (3) medicine (6) memoir (5) memoirs-and-biographies (1) neonatal intensive care (4) non-fiction (21) novel (2) npr-recommends (1) own (2) premature babies (3) premature infants (2) read (3) read in 2019 (1) Respiratory therapy for newborn infants (2) science (6) short stories (5) to-read (47) USA (3)

Common Knowledge

Birthdate: unknown
Gender: female
Occupations: journalist
editor
writer
Agent: Melanie Jackson

Members

Reviews

The Strange Case of Dr. Couney: How a Mysterious… by Dawn Raffel

Preemie incubators got their start as a sideshow act?! True story.

Flagged

settingshadow | 6 other reviews | Aug 19, 2023 |

Boundless as the Sky by Dawn Raffel

This stunning small book consisted of vignettes of all sizes from a few lines to several pages: some of fantastic fictional cities and their people and the second half consisted of the Chicago "Century of Progress", the amazing fly-over of General Italo Balbo of fascist Italy, and various characters in the exhibits and among the patrons of the exposition. This read like poetry and was exquisitely written. The book was both fiction and fact. The author explains factual information.

Flagged

janerawoof | May 27, 2023 |

The Strange Case of Dr. Couney: How a Mysterious… by Dawn Raffel

The story itself is quite interesting - an early innovator in the incubation of infants who surprisingly was not a licensed physician. Likely Dr. Couney's success was due both to his ability to afford innovative infant care and also to his skills as a showman. While some might question his decision to display infants at World Fairs, few can argue with the fact that he afforded care without charge.

Nonetheless, the book dragged at times. I suspect it was a combination of lack of primary sources and that there was simply not much drama in the story itself.

An interesting but hardly compelling read.… (more)

Flagged

la2bkk | 6 other reviews | Apr 26, 2023 |

The Strange Case of Dr. Couney: How a Mysterious… by Dawn Raffel

This could have been good but it was all over the place. The organization of the chronology could definitely been better. And there didn't seem to be much to Couney's life, at least with what info was provided. I get that there isn't much known but there could have been information about the state of medicine especially in regards to women and babies at the various times in history.

Flagged

pacbox | 6 other reviews | Jul 9, 2022 |

See More Reviews