Impact: Women Writing After Concussion

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 Available on many channels, including Libro.fm.

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

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.

Review :
"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. "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