The Emma Press Anthology of Illness edited by Amy Mackelen and Dr Dylan Jaggard

Of course there had to be poetry. I love poetry. I write poetry. Not in an academic way, I am no academic, I accidentally re-discovered poetry in my late 30s as a result of an enterprise called World Book Night. So, why is this book included the Really Virtual Book Group? Because I have a poem within its pages! No, no that’s not true, well it is, but that’s not the reason. The book is brand new, published September 2020, rather timely in the middle of a pandemic when we’re all considering the effects of contracting or avoiding COVID 19.

Most of the poems describe chronic illnesses or disabilities. Mental illness also features. To quote from the introduction: ‘these poems explore the purgatory of illness, and the unexpected swerves a life can take while waiting for a doctor’s lips to move’.

Titles to whet your appetite include: ‘The Problem with Good Looking Oncologists’ by Sharon Black, ‘Shitting in a Bag’ by Mairi-Claire Traynor and ‘Vulnerable Adult’ by Holly Magill.

The book was put together pre-COVID, so none of that in here. The avalanche of COVID poetry and its echoes will be with us soon enough.

If you are interested in hearing the poets, you can dip in and out of this reading.

And if you’d like a copy of the book, I have 5 copies to give away via the book group, or you can visit the Emma Press Shop here.