Impact: Women Writing After Concussion

by E. D. Morin (Editor), Jane Cawthorne (Editor)

Overview

In Impact, 21 women writers consider the effects of concussion on their personal and professional lives. The anthology bears witness to the painstaking work that goes into redefining identity and regaining creative practice after a traumatic event. By sharing their complex and sometimes incomplete healing journeys, these women convey the magnitude of a disability which is often doubted, overlooked, and trivialized, in part because of its invisibility. Impact offers compassion and empathy to all readers and families healing from concussion and other types of trauma. Contributors: Adèle Barclay, Jane Cawthorne, Tracy Wai de Boer, Stephanie Everett, Mary-Jo Fetterly, Rayanne Haines, Jane Harris, Kyla Jamieson, Alexis Kienlen, Claire Lacey, E. D. Morin, Julia Nunes, Shelley Pacholok, Chiedza Pasipanodya, Judy Rebick, Julie Sedivy, Dianah Smith, Carrie Snyder, Kinnie Starr, Amy Stuart, Anna Swanson

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781772125863
Publisher:	The University of Alberta Press
Publication date:	10/05/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	248
File size:	651 KB

About the Author

E. D. Morin (Calgary/Mohkínstsis) is a winner of the Brenda Strathern Writing Prize. Her experience with concussion is documented in an online graphic story on Empathize This. She co-edited the literary anthology, Writing Menopause, with Jane Cawthorne.
Jane Cawthorne is a writer, editor, and feminist activist. She published the anthology, Writing Menopause, with Elaine Morin. Jane has an MFA in Creative Writing and writes about women on the brink of transformation.

Table of Contents

xi Brainstorm | how we got here | E. D. Morin&Jane Cawthorne I | WHERE TO BEGIN 3 In Exile I Draw the Tower Card | Kyla Jamieson 5 Lost | Jane Cawthorne 21 It’s Fine, I’m Fine | selections from a one-woman show | Stephanie Everett 43 In the River | Carrie Snyder 55 Another Ordinary Day | Dianah Smith II | AM I GETTING BETTER 61 September | Kyla Jamieson 63 Un/titled | Shelley Pacholok 79 Whet Language | Claire Lacey 95 I was in the back of a taxi that went into a car that rolled a stop sign | Kinnie Starr 111 Losing my mind | Judy Rebick III | NO LONGER THE PERSON I WAS 123 Two Years Post-Injury | Kyla Jamieson 125 How to: Consume Care, Caringly | Chiedza Pasipanodya 131 She Hulk | E. D. Morin 143 No Answers | Alexis Kienlen 155 Concussion, Yoga and Resiliency | Mary-Jo Fetterly V I DREAM OF SWIMMING 169 Kind of Animal | Kyla Jamieson 173 In which skinny dipping temporarily fixes a life | Anna Swanson 187 Finding the Switch | Amy Stuart 195 A Wave of Relief | Tracy Wai de Boer 205 Appearing and Disappearing | a poet gets up from her table | Jane Harris V | CARRIED THROUGH ALL THAT 223 At Least | Kyla Jamieson 225 The Next Hit | Julia Nunes 241 This is Normal | Rayanne Haines 249 And the Sky Was All Violet | Adèle Barclay 263 Disconnections | Julie Sedivy 273 Orca mother drops calf after an unexpected 17 days of mourning | Kyla Jamieson 275 Acknowledgements 277 Notes 281 Contributors

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"This book is such a gift to women, like me, who have suffered concussion. I devoured it. I revelled in it. I gave/give thanks for it. I offer deep gratitude for these eloquent women courageously sharing their personal stories about the invisible thief that is concussion. Right from the introduction, I was saying yes, Yes, YES! Impact is also a gift of great writing for general readers. This book creates affirmation, validation, and understanding. I believe it will also create change. Every writer is Wonder Woman in my eyes. Thank you for (your) Impact." —Shelagh Rogers, O.C., Host of The Next Chapter, CBC Radio

"I know people who have had serious concussions. I'm familiar with a devastating range of symptoms. But those I know are not writers; those in this book are. They articulate that experience with bravery and insight; painfully, but personally. I know concussion specialists who are open-minded about how much they don't know about concussion. This is a book for them. And for the rest of us too." —Jay Ingram, science writer and broadcaster

"Imagine losing your abilities to create language or poetry; to be unable to freely put pen to paper. Impact delves into the raw emotional challenges faced by authors dealing with brain injuries. Readers of the anthology join the authors' recovery as they share universal themes of creativity, isolation, regression, growth, femininity, and pain related to TBI. I recommend this anthology to others and look forward to using it as a resource within and beyond the hospital." —Dr. Shree Bhalerao, FRCP(C) MD, Pgd, BA, BSc, St. Michael's Hospital, Associate Professor, University of Toronto

"This book offers validation and companionship to people who have suffered head injuries, and to many other ill people whose symptoms derail their lives but resist clinical interventions. Clinicians will gain valuable insight into how symptoms affect lives as they are lived outside of what can be perceived within the clinic. For me, the most compelling chapters take up a paradoxical task: telling a story about what prevents you from telling the story you most need to tell." —Arthur W. Frank, author of At the Will of the Body and The Wounded Storyteller

"The essays in Impact function like the name of the anthology itself: long after reading these varied pieces I felt the effects. The through-line in this collection about concussion is a diverse, idiosyncratic reaction as unique as each contributor's writing style. How could one story describe concussion in women? It can't. We need each of these voices. Amid a health care system that evaluates women on a scale developed for and by men, these authors testify to the diffuse, confusing, inconsistent symptoms that come with brain injury. I venture that people with neurological challenges will feel confirmed and those whose loved ones live with post-concussion syndrome may understand why this state is almost impossible to articulate from deep inside the fog. E. D. Morin and Jane Cawthorne's assemblage of artists and thinkers create a chorus of testimony to capture medicine's attention with the full force of personal testimony." —Elee Kraljii Gardiner, Trauma Head and Against Death: 35 Essays on Living

Editorial Reviews

"The personal essays and poetry collected in this anthology edited by activist writers Morin and Cawthorne explore how concussions and traumatic brain injuries (TBI) impact women, and in particular, how suffering a concussion and TBI has affected the individual lives of the various contributing authors.... The anthology is divided into five sections, each bookended with poetry, and includes essays on, e.g., accepting the effects of injury, the challenges of healing, the life changes wrought by concussion, and the struggle for recovery of the creative process.... The essays, written by a diverse group of women writers, were selected with the aim of helping women who have suffered from concussion realize that they are not alone." C. A. Nadon, CHOICE Magazine

Summing Up: Recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals. General readers.
"Recommended reading.... we find it compelling and profoundly accurate." Concussion Alliance newsletter, March 2, 2022
Impact: Women Writing After Concussion is an anthology containing the stories of 21 women writers reflecting on how their personal and professional lives have changed following experience with concussion.—Concussion Alliance, March 2, 2022
"The 21 contributors here are strong, capable, accomplished.... Yet their ongoing success was jeopardized by a concussion, a.k.a. TBI (traumatic brain injury). Through this anthology, we step into the realm of the contributors' confusion and turmoil. The journey is at once astonishing, fascinating, troubling and inspiring.... Impact is one of the best anthologies I've ever read. It is not a quick read. Much pain and beauty are in its pages." Doreen Vanderstoop, Alberta Views Magazine, June 2022

"This book is such a gift to women, like me, who have suffered concussion. I devoured it. I revelled in it. I gave/give thanks for it. I offer deep gratitude for these eloquent women courageously sharing their personal stories about the invisible thief that is concussion. Right from the introduction, I was saying yes, Yes, YES! Impact is also a gift of great writing for general readers. This book creates affirmation, validation, and understanding. I believe it will also create change. Every writer is Wonder Woman in my eyes. Thank you for (your) Impact."
—Shelagh Rogers, O.C., Host of The Next Chapter, CBC Radio
"I know people who have had serious concussions. I’m familiar with a devastating range of symptoms. But those I know are not writers; those in this book are. They articulate that experience with bravery and insight; painfully, but personally. I know concussion specialists who are open-minded about how much they don’t know about concussion. This is a book for them. And for the rest of us too."
—Jay Ingram, science writer and broadcaster
"Imagine losing your abilities to create language or poetry; to be unable to freely put pen to paper. Impact delves into the raw emotional challenges faced by authors dealing with brain injuries. Readers of the anthology join the authors’ recovery as they share universal themes of creativity, isolation, regression, growth, femininity, and pain related to TBI. I recommend this anthology to others and look forward to using it as a resource within and beyond the hospital."
—Dr. Shree Bhalerao, FRCP(C) MD, Pgd, BA, BSc, St. Michael’s Hospital, Associate Professor, University of Toronto
"This book offers validation and companionship to people who have suffered head injuries, and to many other ill people whose symptoms derail their lives but resist clinical interventions. Clinicians will gain valuable insight into how symptoms affect lives as they are lived outside of what can be perceived within the clinic. For me, the most compelling chapters take up a paradoxical task: telling a story about what prevents you from telling the story you most need to tell."
—Arthur W. Frank, author of At the Will of the Body and The Wounded Storyteller
"The essays in Impact function like the name of the anthology itself: long after reading these varied pieces I felt the effects. The through-line in this collection about concussion is a diverse, idiosyncratic reaction as unique as each contributor’s writing style. How could one story describe concussion in women? It can’t. We need each of these voices. Amid a health care system that evaluates women on a scale developed for and by men, these authors testify to the diffuse, confusing, inconsistent symptoms that come with brain injury. I venture that people with neurological challenges will feel confirmed and those whose loved ones live with post-concussion syndrome may understand why this state is almost impossible to articulate from deep inside the fog. E. D. Morin and Jane Cawthorne’s assemblage of artists and thinkers create a chorus of testimony to capture medicine’s attention with the full force of personal testimony."
—Elee Kraljii Gardiner, Trauma Head and Against Death: 35 Essays on Living

From the Publisher