Poetry and Stimming
In this blog for World Autism Acceptance Week, James McGrath, an autistic poet and academic, advocates the value of “stimming” and explores how it relates to poetry. I dedicate the lipogramatic poem below to
Writing my way out: A Poetics of Illness and Disability
Reflecting on their pandemic life living in communal halls as a PhD student at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Cat Chong considers their practices involved in continually negotiating a chronic illness within the context of
Finding Poetry in Gynaecology
Joanna Ingham reflects on her experience of ovarian health and using poetry to explore illness, bodies, and grief. MRI Because I am asked so often if I have metal in my body, and I
Poetry, epistemic justice and exploring the potential of connectivity
Reflecting on her four-decade nursing career, Sue Spencer uses poetry to explore justice, values and change. I read an earlier version of this poem at an event I organised that “celebrated” 40 years since
‘Complaint!’ A (Complaint) Collective Book Review: Part I
This post, by Rachel Jane Liebert, is Part I of a series of responses to Complaint! by Sara Ahmed (2021: Duke University Press). For the other contributions, click here. “To complain is to admit
Fox Talks: Species Intersections and Healing in ‘A Quarter of an Hour’
Leanne O’Sullivan’s poetry collection A Quarter of an Hour uses imagery of animals and the natural world to create a bridge between illness and health, showing how understanding and acceptance can be as indispensable in
‘knots, tangles, fankles’: Book Review
Jeremy Kearney reviews knots, tangles, fankles (V. Press, 2021) by Alex Reed. In 1964 when R D Laing and Aaron Esterson published the findings of their research into families where young female members had
‘Arrival at Elsewhere’: Book Review
Gita Ralleigh reviews ‘Arrival at Elsewhere’, a book-length collaborative poem compiled from work written during the first few months of UK lockdown.
‘William Blake’s Gothic Imagination’: Book Review
Kathleen Reynolds reviews Chris Bundock and Elizabeth Effinger’s edited collection, William Blake’s Gothic Imagination: Bodies of horror (Manchester University Press, 2018). William Blake’s Gothic Imagination: Bodies of Horror sets out to unpick the multiplicity
A hand on the arm: Gesture, neurodiversity and performance
Not I (TourettesHero) and A Certain Sense of Order (Tick Tock) ‘I can’t say how many times I’ve felt so happy’ says Jess Thom, ‘for a hand on my arm’. She is referring to a moment