Sick (15 page)

Authors: Ben Holtzman

Emily Klamer
is a student, writer, and activist from Missouri. Her passions include advocating for survivors of sexual and intimate partner violence, cultivating a feminist praxis, and remembering how to have fun. Notes can be sent to
[email protected]

Luci
lives in Columbia, MO. She spends her free time doing bizarre things like studying toxicology, collecting comic books, and spending 3 hours daily playing pool so she can eventually hustle suckers. After her heart transplant, she plans to move to Olympia, WA to become a mountain climbing guide. Please feel free to contact her through:
[email protected]

Kristin Alysia Pape
has been swallowed whole by an endless PhD dissertation about the “ailing body” in film and literature, but escapes routinely enough to teach writing and visual/cultural studies at Pratt Institute. She lives (and obsessively knits) in Brooklyn with her partner and a menagerie of variously-disabled animals.

Tessa Petrocco
is an Ohio-born freelance writer currently based out of New York City. Her work can be seen on Spill.com as well as Shockya.com. She has been embracing her “pimp walk” since 1993 and is secretly happy she has a valid excuse to own a handicapped parking decal.

Beth Puma
is a former resident of Brooklyn, NY who has relocated to sunny Tucson. She is a public school teacher. She was involved with the Long Island Freespace and the Long Island Womyn's Collective. There she organized with Jodi Tilton, the friend she writes about here and whom she still grieves over. Currently, Beth is pursuing various writing adventures. She is also a guinea pig enthusiast and loves to talk to folks about that as well.

Rachel
is a double aquarius who enjoys most things with wings, vegan cooking/eating, and pumping iron. When not tackling the demands of graduate school she can most often be found snuggling with her cats, smooshy and liam, and watching 90210 reruns.

Rainbow
was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease when she was 2 years old. She received a kidney from her mother in 2001, and is now focusing on staying healthy, being creative, going to college, and making a life for herself.

Andrea Runyan
is a recent Stanford graduate in math and biology. She is currently working from home as Lyme disease project manager. In her free time, she makes use of the Cambridge public library network and writes on HubPages and her Lyme blog (freeideasblog.blogspot.com). She aims to be a health and spirituality writer. She thanks her Dad, Mom and boyfriend for their support. She can be reached at
[email protected]

Brittany Shoot
is an American writer and activist based in Copenhagen, Denmark. She and her partner live with their cat Malcolm and attempt to be vegan in an omnivorous country. Acupuncture and herbal therapy have drastically reduced the frequency of and pain associated with her migraines. She is working on her first solo zine about life in Denmark.

RESOURCE LIST:

SUPPORT AND CAREGIVING

The Etiquette of Illness: What To Say When You Can't Find The Words (Susan P. Halpern)

Help Me Live: 20 Things People With Cancer Want You To Know (Lori Hope)

An Uncertain Inheritance: Writers on Caring for Family (Nell Casey)

“The Importance of Support: Building Foundations, Sustaining Community,” Rolling Thunder: An Anarchist Journal of Dangerous Living Issue 6 (Fall 2008), 29-39. Soon to be revised, expanded and published as a pamphlet by PM Press

ILLNESS/DISABILITY

The Cancer Journals (Audrey Lorde)

The Natural Remedy Book for Women (Diane Stein)

The Patient's Voice: Experiences Of Illness (Jeanine Young-Mason)

Waist-High in the World: A Life Among the Nondisabled (Nancy Mairs)

“All of Our Lives: Renewing the Social Model of Disability” (Liz Crow)

http://www.roaring-girl.com/socialmodel.pdf

ZINES (THESE ALL TOUCH ON ILLNESS AND RELATED ISSUES)

About My Disappearance (#1-2)

Broken Hipster (#1-3)

Caboose (#6)

Harlot, RN