Gail is the author, coauthor, or translator of sixteen books of poetry and prose, including Under the Capsized Boat We Fly: New & Selected Poems (White Pine Press, 2021) and the poetry collections Imperfect Pastorals; Poems for Infidels; and Dying for Beauty, a finalist for the Western Arts Federation Poetry Prize. She is the translator of Argentinean poet Alicia Partnoy’s book Fuegos Florales/Flowering Fires, winner of the American Poetry Prize from Settlement House Press. Her poems have appeared in many journals, including Poetry, Boston Review, Antioch Review, Denver Quarterly, Poetry International, Guesthouse, and Volt.  

Gail is the recipient of an Artists Fellowship from the California Arts Council. Her work has appeared in several anthologies, including Pratik, the LA Issue; Poets Against War; The Black Body; In Possession of Shakespeare; The Poet’s Child; Wide Awake: The Poetry of Los Angeles and Beyond, and Coiled Serpent:  Poets Arising from the Cultural Quakes and Shifts of Los Angeles. The Moose in the Moon, her book of poetry for children, was published by Tsehai Publishers. Gail is coeditor of the anthology What Falls Away is Always: Writers Over 60 on Writing & Death (What Books Press, 2021).  She taught creative writing and women’s literature at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles where she was awarded the Harry M. Daum Professorship.  

Born and raised in eastern Pennsylvania, Gail attended high school outside Detroit, Michigan, then went to Kalamazoo College. After two years, she transferred to the University of Virginia, She received a BA in English with High Distinction there, then continued on for an MFA in Creative Writing:  Poetry. After teaching English for a year at Foxcroft School in Middleburg, VA, she attended the PhD program at the University of Utah, receiving her doctorate in English and American Literature in 1982.  Since then Gail has been teaching at LMU. She is married to the novelist Chuck Rosenthal.  Their daughter Marlena Dalí is a performance artist in Sydney, Australia.

Gail is a founding member of the Glass Table Collective, a former member of the Board of Directors of Beyond Baroque, and a member of the Advisory Board of Anaphora Arts. She curates the Clockwork Chapbook Series for Tebot Bach Press and is a member of the permanent faculty of the Prague Summer Program.