The Emma Press Anthology of Illness

Amy Mackelden, Dylan Jaggard, Amy Mackelden, Dylan Jaggard

• Publisher: The Emma Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781910139530
• eBook ISBN: 9781910139509
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Poetry
• Index: Literature

From interactions with hot oncologists to life-threatening hospital stays to a really bad case of glandular fever.

Whether a diagnosis is life-altering or treatable, a total surprise or painfully invisible, The Emma Press Anthology of Illness explores what we wish people knew about being ill, and whether finding that 'new normal' is ever possible.

ABOUT THE POETS

Cassandra Atherton is a widely anthologised Australian prose poet. She has written eight books of prose poetry and has recently been awarded Australia Council Grants to write a book of prose poetry on the atomic bomb. She is commissioning poeetry editor for Westerly Magazine.

Sharon Black is from Glasgow and lives in France. In 2019 she won The Guernsey International Poetry Competition and the London Magazine Poetry Prize. Her two collections are To Know Bedrock (Pindrop, 2011) and The Art of Egg (Pindrop, 2019), and her third, The Last Woman Born on the Island, is forthcoming from TLM Editions.

Astra Bloom won the Bare Fiction Prize for Poetry in 2015, came second in the Brighton story prize, won the Sussex flash fiction prize, and has been shortlisted by Bridport, Mslexia, and the 2019 London Magazine Essay Prize. She has writing in Common People, an anthology of working class writing edited by Kit de Waal.

Samara Bolton studies Creative Writing at the University of Chichester. In 2018 she was commended in the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Awards. Her ultimate goal is to highlight the positives that stem from darker times, extending the joy and catharsis of poetry to a broader audience.

Constance Bourg lives in the Flemish part of Belgium, where she volunteers at her local library and social food market. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Frogpond, Haibun Today and the Plath Poetry Project. She always says that she lives a ‘part-time life’ because of a chronic illness called ME/CFS.

Rachel Bower is the author of Moon Milk (Valley Press) and Epistolarity and World Literature (Palgrave Macmillan). Her poems and stories have been published in Magma, Stand and New Welsh Reader, and shortlisted for the London Magazine Poetry Prize and the White Review Short Story Prize.

Emily Brenchi is a 28-year-old writer, actor and disability rights activist. She has BA in English and Drama in 2012 from the University of Greenwich and has poetry published in Disability journal Wordgathering. She currently lives near Oxford and, as a sufferer of Crohn’s Disease, is interested in exploring ideas around disability and the body on the page.

Sue Burge is freelance creative writing and film studies tutor based in North Norfolk. Lumière, her debut pamphlet, and In the Kingdom of Shadows, her first collection, were both published in 2018. Sue’s second pamphlet, The Saltwater Diaries, will be published in Autumn 2020. www.sueburge.uk

Jane Burn lives in the North East of England. Her poems are widely published in many magazines and anthologies, have been nominated for The Forward and Pushcart Prize and have been placed in many poetry competitions.

Louisa Campbell used to be a registered mental health nurse and has complex PTSD and bipolar disorder. She has written about these experiences in her poetry pamphlets The Happy Bus (Picaroon Poetry, 2017) and The Ward (Paper Swans Press, 2018). She lives in Kent.

Stephanie Conn is a poet and PhD candidate from Northern Ireland. Her poetry collections The Woman on the Other Side (2016) and Island (2018) are published by Doire Press. Her pamphlet Copeland’s Daughter (2016) was published by Smith/Doorstep. Stephanie has Fibromyalgia and is currently researching Poetry and Chronic Illness.

Marc Darnell is a custodian in Papillion, Nebraska, and received his MFA from the University of Iowa. He has published poems in The Lyric, Shot Glass Journal, Ragazine, Jam & Sand and The Literary Nest, among others, and has forthcoming poems in Fine Lines, The Pangolin Review, and POETiCA REVIEW.

Marian Fielding’s poem was inspired by the many tedious/terrifying times she has attended hospital in- and out-patient appointments. She has been published in Orbis, South, South Bank Poetry and The Interpreter’s House. She was commended in The Hippocrates Prize Competition 2015. She is also a published short story writer.

Charlie Fitz is a sick and disabled artist, writer and poet living in Birmingham. Her work broadly explores experiences of illness whilst aiming to resist expectations that the ‘sick’ be patient or passive to medical paternalism. Find out more about her work at www.sickofbeingpatient.com.

Lucy Fox is a queer and disabled writer of poetry, prose, and all that lives in-between. She holds a BCA (Honours) in Creative Writing and owns more pairs of pyjamas than you. You will most often find her in bed, but you can also find her in Imprint Magazine, Baby Teeth Arts Journal, or on Twitter @LucyFox96.

Helena Goddard started writing poetry in 2006, so could be classed as a young poet as long as you don’t find her birth certificate. She’s had success in competitions, including the Plough International Poetry Prize and Poetry on the Lake. She’s been published in anthologies, The Interpreter’s House, and the Rialto.

Rhiannon Grant lives in Birmingham. Her best work arises from personal experience, of spirituality as well as illness and the rest of life. As well as poetry, she writes LGBTQ+ novels and about religion. Her latest book, Quakers Do What! Why?, was published by Christian Alternative Books in 2020.

Paula Harris lives in New Zealand, where she writes and sleeps a lot, because that’s what depression makes you do. She won the 2018 Janet B. McCabe Poetry Prize and her work has been in Queen Mob’s Teahouse, Kissing Dynamite, Barren, SWWIM, Glass and others. Find her on Twitter @paulaoffkilter or on her website, www.paulaharris.co.nz

Holly Magill has had poetry in numerous magazines and anthologies. She is co-editor at Atrium (www.atriumpoetry.com). Her first pamphlet, The Becoming of Lady Flambé, is available from Indigo Dreams Publishing.

Gillian Mellor lives near M...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Other Titles from The Emma Press
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Introduction
• Contents
• SAMARA BOLTON
• SHARON BLACK
• SHARON BLACK
• JANE SALMONS
• CASSANDRA ATHERTON
• MARC DARNELL
• DEB SCUDDER
• STEPHANIE CONN
• LOUISA CAMPBELL
• PAULA HARRIS
• MOLLIE RUSSELL
• GILLIAN MELLOR
• SUE BURGE
• EMILY BRENCHI
• EMILY BRENCHI
• HELENA GODDARD
• SAM ROSE
• JANE BURN
• RHIANNON GRANT
• MAIRI-CLAIRE TRAYNOR
• MARIAN FIELDING
• HOLLY MAGILL
• LUCY FOX
• CONSTANCE BOURG
• CHARLIE FITZ
• REBEKAH MIRON
• HOLLIE RICHARDS
• ALISON WINCH
• HELEN SEYMOUR
• RACHEL BOWER
• ASTRA BLOOM
• RUTH MIDDLETON
• JESS REDWAY
• Acknowledgements
• About the Editors
• About the Poets
• About The Emma Press
• Also from The Emma Press