Expanded Bio

Bio

Edward Donald Nudelman (born June 13, 1953) is an American poet with five published poetry books. An avid poet from his early days, Nudelman has also recently retired from a productive career in cancer research, where he was head scientist in several biotech companies. He is a native of Seattle, where he owns and operates a rare book company that he founded in 1980, and is currently living in Seattle with his wife.

Edward Nudelman received all of his pre-college education on Mercer Island, a community just East of Seattle, and graduated from Mercer Island High School. There, he was awarded participation in his senior year in an alternative “block classroom,” which focused on reading classic philosophers and literary high points, including poets. Nudelman graduated from the University of Washington in 1976, receiving honors and separate and sequential degrees in both Zoology and Chemistry. Turning down a medical school acceptance, Nudelman pursued a career in scientific research, an ambition he’d held since youth, by accepting a laboratory appointment at the prestigious Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. He remained at FHCRC for the next ten years, authoring 25 papers on novel cancer therapeutic and diagnostic strategies. He then cofounded The Biomembrane Institute in 1986 (in Seattle), where he remained for eight years, publishing an additional 30 papers in cancer research. The new position offered time to explore other avenues, including writing and specifically poetry. Nudelman closed out his career in scientific research by cofounding a cancer biotech company in Boston, where he and his wife lived for seven years.

During this time in Boston, Nudelman remained active in writing poetry, but it wasn’t until 2005, when he joined a writing group of New England poets, that he became active in submitting his work to journals and book publishers. He joined a key group of poets in the area who shared poems and workshopped together, many of whom went on to have successful careers. A special union occurred during this time when he met Franz Wright, and sadly, near the end of Franz’s life, helping him navigate his cancer diagnosis and pursue readings in prisons. This experience strongly influenced Nudelman’s inclinations and direction in poetry.

Nudelman’s first full-length book, Night Fires, was published in 2009. That was quickly followed by What Looks Like an Elephant (2011), and Out of Time Running (2014). Nudelman’s two latest poetry collections include: Nonlinear Equations for Growing Better Olive Trees (Kelsay Books, 2023), and Thin Places, 2025 (Salmon Poetry).

Edward Nudelman’s poetry has garnered praise from noted poets, including George Bilgere, Rae Armantrout, Scott Cairns, Grace Cavalieri, and Aaron Belz. Nudelman has won significant awards and prizes. His poetry is known for its lyrical aspects, wry humor, and leveraging on his experiences and impressions from his career in scientific research. Often presenting paradoxes and comparisons in nature and the cosmos, as well as contradictory impulses of certainty and doubt, Nudelman shares his irrepressible, if not quirky, thirst for beauty and meaning.

An avid olive grower exploring aspects of fruiting and brining, guitarist, and chess enthusiast, Nudelman still enjoys poring over arcane and sometimes frustrating lines of biomedical research and offering easy access to understanding regarding various biomedical topics and issues, on social media platforms and elsewhere. He lives in Seattle with his wife, whom he met in 1972 in a calculus class, has three children and “many more grandkids!”