A swimmer who collects trash. A childhood bicycle ride through Toronto. A recipe for beef and cucumbers. A harrowing security check in the Seattle airport. In Impact: Women Writing After Concussion, my latest collection with Jane Cawthorne, twenty-one writers weave together story and truth as they contemplate the aftermath of concussion.
Like our last book, Impact is a literary work. It does not offer scientific or medical expertise. And yet, we know these new works will add to the understanding of concussion and traumatic brain injury (TBI.) We know that research still focusses on men, and specifically men in sport. We also know that, when men’s bodies and experiences are considered normative, women are invisible and their needs are not met.
All of the women writing in Impact have struggled to get appropriate care. And so, in this volume, many of the writers contemplate what recovery means when “getting back to normal” is no longer an option. Sharing their most vulnerable selves, the writers in this volume take up a wide range of topics—including return to physical activity, caregiving for family members with concussion, confrontations with ableism, struggles with mental health, and what it means to create and write with a hobbled brain.
E. D. Morin and Jane Cawthorne, editors
September 2021
University of Alberta Press