Histories is an eclectic and unusual poetry debut from the author of the creative non-fiction work Wardlife: The Apprenticeship of a Young Writer as a Hospital Clerk published to acclaim in 1999. From the medical history to family history, Histories reveals a poet of multiple personas and postures. Steinmetz chooses the clinical medical history to render sympathetic minimalist portraits of the sick and dying. These dramas, spoken between clinicians, are no less than the public screening of private lives. Histories plays like an ensemble of voices-wry, philosophical, and romantic.