Blood, Phlegm, Yellow Bile, Black Bile, Or: The Story of How My Sibling and I Time-Travelled to Kill God
Contributors include prize-winning established writers such as Hsu-Ming Teo (Love and Vertigo Vogel Prize), Jessica Kirkness (The House with all the Lights On) and Kim Kelly (The Rat Catcher et al historical fiction) with emerging writers to give voice to the wide range of experiences that constitute ‘living with illness and disability’.
Living with Illness and Disability – Poised on the Pointe of Pain is a collaborative project between WestWords and Macquarie University. 10% of all sales will be donated to Chronic Pain Australia.
Blood, Phlegm, Yellow Bile, Black Bile, Or: The Story of How My Sibling and I Time-Travelled to Kill God is an creative non-fiction essay on living with disability and chronic illness. Written with a focus on the absurd, body-horror, and speculative fantasy, this anthology essay focuses on the author’s lived experience with endometriosis and adenomyosis, alongside their sibling’s popliteal artery entrapment syndrome.
Exploring the relations of care/non-care between institutions and the individual, alongside gendered medical negligence, Blood, Phlegm… is a love letter from the author to their younger sibling, and how traditional familial dynamics are challenged by illness, transforming positions of caretaking, guardianship and authority into ephemeral states occupied by either sibling depending on ability.
These scars art deep, she says. What w’re thy physicians looking f’r?
We fought after I murdered Freud— your birthday present to me. I tried to give You yours while my hands were still sticky. Instead, I didn’t hear from You for years, not till Napoleon strode across Russia to the hollow belly of Moscow. I found You there, astride a horse dressed in the uniform of a Polish Winged Hussar.
