Daniel J. Waters is a native of southern NJ. He is a graduate of St. Joseph's College (PA) and the University of Medicine & Dentistry of NJ; he also holds a Graduate Certificate in Narrative Healthcare and a Master of Arts in Writing from the Thomas Wolfe Center for Narrative at Lenoir-Rhyne University (Asheville, NC). First published as a medical student in 1981 he has authored numerous stories and essays, two widely-quoted books of surgical advice, three poems, an award-winning play, and five novels. He retired in 2019 after performing open-heart surgery for thirty years and overseeing Graduate Medical Education programs for two decades. He was a Writing Fellow for the Health Professionals website Doximity where his "Op-Med" essays were widely read. He lives with his wife in Clear Lake, Iowa.
