This chapbook was born out of a desire to give voice to something many of us go through, but few get to talk about: the silence surrounding chronic illness and disability. It is the silence borne when disease flare-ups disrupt our lives. The silence borne when doctors focus on symptoms rather than. The silence borne when friends who used to check in with us stop because we give them only complicated answers. The silence borne when society decided only the wealthy deserve care. The writers in Chronic chose to break this silence.

Chronic illness is unpredictable, exhausting, political, and personal. The writers in this collection illustrate this. They write from their own experiences, showing how pain disrupts daily life, how illness changes memories and plans, and how getting a diagnosis is often a struggle. This is the reality of living with chronic illness: you exist within a body that doesn’t always comply. And yet still, chronic illness and disability are not just medical issues but also political issues that exemplify how power and inequality manifest in relation to receiving or not receiving care. The pieces in this chapbook show the impact of ableism in relation to work, community, and care, as well as relationships between disability and gender, class, race, queerness, and the legacy of eugenics.

At its core, Chronic is about saying: I exist. I am still here. It was an honour to create this chapbook, and I thank every contributor for sharing their work with us. To every reader, I hope you approach these poems with honesty and care.