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Non-Fiction: Poetry, Memoir
Mentions: Multiple Sclerosis, Ulcerative Colitis, Hypothyroidism, Inflammatory Arthritis, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder
Trigger warnings: Medical trauma and gaslighting
Disabled Author: Multiple Sclerosis, Ulcerative Colitis, Hypothyroidism, Inflammatory Arthritis, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder
About
I specialize in specialists.
My body segmented into disciplines
multidisciplinary multimorbidities
I become freelance medical administrator.
They say “care team”
casually,
as though they plan
annual conference comradery
Summit Subject: My Flesh.
Be mysterious, they tell us, but Rebecca Wood would like to be anything but. Through poetry, prose, and clever wordplay, Multimorbid details the frustrations of seeking, asking for, and receiving care. Wood speaks to the mental toll of chronic illness (“Thoughts poisoned feel/are/feel true / Evidence of competency, capacity, capability / trapped behind glass”)—even as she is interjected by the people who love her—her lines blur between dis-ease and defeat. Multimorbid’s oftentimes darkly comic take on disability leaves everyone complicit and a little bit scarred—care teams lost in the red tape of their own ‘efficiency’; friends and patients alike, trying and failing, and doing their best. And the patient—too patient—advocating, explaining, (self) soothing again. Welcome to the multiaffected, multifaceted, multimorbid life.
"Rich in metaphor, with a beautiful sense of rhythm, Multimorbid promises to be a relatable read for some and illuminating for others. A deeply moving poetic expression of embodied experience."
—Audrey T. Carroll, author of The Gaia Hypothesis and In My Next Queer Life, I Want to Be
Author's Note
Multimorbid is a book of poetry and short prose about the overwhelm of navigating multiple diagnoses, multiple doctors, multiple medications while immunocompromised and isolated. It is about seeking care, connection and hope in the complex context of chronic illness.
Author's website: www.rebeccawoodwrites.ca
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Posted: Wednesday 30 September 2026
