Description
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.
Awards
- Winner, Trade Non-Fiction Book of the Year | Alberta Book Awards, Book Publishers Association of Alberta 2022
- Short-listed, Book Cover Design | Alberta Book Awards, Book Publishers Association of Alberta 2022
Reviews
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 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
"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