On Being Ill
Translated by Sophie Collins.
- £14.99
- Available
- Paperback published on 17/01/2022
- Page count: 172 pages
- ISBN: 9781874320777
Synopsis
People everywhere have found themselves faced with a global pandemic, during which we have learned to cope with sickness and all that accompanies it: isolation, immunity, loss of control, and recovery. Yet while no longer taboo, illness remains an unpopular theme in literature. In her essay, On Being Ill Virginia Woolf asks whether illness should not receive more literary attention, taking its place alongside the recurring themes of “love, battle and jealousy”.
The subtle complexities of Woolf’s essay will no doubt continue to be resonant for a new generation of readers today. In this collaborative volume, authors, translators and illustrators have come together from Great Britain, Ireland, the United States and the Netherlands to represent past, present and future thinking about illness. Noteworthy contributions to this edition are Deryn Rees-Jones’ preface to Woolf’s essay from 1926 and the introduction to Audre Lorde’s The Cancer Journals of 1980.
Against these, the voices of contemporary authors resonate as they contemplate the interactions between sickness and literature. Readers are able to begin the book at the end, or might happily start in the middle, as every contribution is a unique, personal piece which offers poignant observations of the world of illness from within. Writing, as well as reading, about illness, is a form of love.
About the author
Virginia Woolf wrote the title essay 'On Being Ill' originally in 1926, shortly after a world wide pandemic. In this anthology it was published again, alongside the poignant and excellent contributions by contemprory writers who have been asking themselves similar questions as Woolf did, whilst experiencing pain, sickness and suffering, but also epiphanies, creativitiy and foresight. Writers from across the United Kingdom, America, and Ireland have conributed each in their own individual style on the topics of illness and literature. Poet Deryn Rees-Jones wrote the preface. Other authors include Lucia Osborne-Crowley, Nafsissa Thompson-Spires, Nadia de Vries, Mieke van Zonneveld, Lieke Marsman and Jameisha Prescod and Sinéad Gleeson. The anthology finishes with Audre Lorde's introduction to her Cancer Journals. The Dutch essays were translated by Sophie Collins.
Virginia Woolf, Deryn Rees-Jones, Lieke Marsman, Lucia Osborne-Crowley, Nadia de Vries, Nafissa Thompson-Spires, Jameisha Prescod, Mieke van Zonneveld, Sinéad Gleeson and Audre Lorde
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Menard Press was founded as a small magazine in 1969 and brought out its first book in 1971. It has specialised in literary translation, mainly of poetry. In addition to literary texts – original and...
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