“Two lives bound into one story by immigration and illness.”
illness
Posted inEditor's Pick
When the Doctor Doesn’t Listen
“The medical establishment has a long history of ignoring patients with ‘unexplained’ symptoms. Long Covid might finally bring about a global attitude shift.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Love, COVID, and Other Risks
Throughout the pandemic, Emma Healey and her immunocompromised partner — a liver transplant recipient — have constantly weighed and navigated day-to-day risks. As Toronto opens up, making decisions have become even more confusing. In this essay, Healey reflects on health, risk, and love. We are all making our decisions the same way—with one eye on […]
Posted inNonfiction, Reading List, Story
Disbelieving What You Cannot See: A Reading List on Ableism and ‘Invisible’ Disability
Start your unlearning here.
Posted inEditor's Pick
I’ve Fled New York with My Wife, Kids and Dog – Just as my Ancestors Fled the 1918 Pandemic
After covering the plights of refugees around the world as a journalist, Bryan Mealer finds himself a refugee, fleeing New York City for his childhood home of west Texas — where his great-grandmother and her oldest daughter died in the influenza epidemic of 1918.
Posted inNonfiction
The Consequences of Surviving
“As medicine advances, we have more survivors. But those survivors carry trauma to their graves.”
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Highlight, Quotes
How Do You Live In a Body That Doesn’t Feel Like Yours? If You Have No Choice, You Just Do.
Paraic O’Donnell chronicles the progression of his MS with clarity, beauty, wit, and no small amount of sadness. Picking the most striking paragraph in this essay full of them is a fool’s errand.
Posted inBooks, Essays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Story
Surviving the Shattering of My Mind and My Marriage
Andrea J. Buchanan contemplates the way illness and pain can freeze a sufferer in time, as if encased in glass.
Posted inBooks
This Month in Books: ‘I Don’t Want To Become a Giant Insect!’
This month’s books newsletter is a bodily affair.