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Brain Injury and Poetry

In 2022, I completed a creative/critical PhD about brain injury and poetry. I experienced a life-altering concussion as the result of a roller derby accident, and I am exploring poetry as a means to communicate the disjunctive, disruptive experience of brain injury. The critical framework of the project blends medical literature, disability theory, and literary analysis to analyze how brain injury is represented. The creative element uses the fluidity of poetry to communicate an uncommunicable experience. 

The PhD thesis is available to read for free here: Concussion Episodes: A creative-critical project on poetry and brain injury

"Whet Language" is an essay I wrote for the anthology Impact: Women Writing After Concussion, now available from the University of Alberta Press (or order from your favourite bookseller or request at your local library). 

Concussion Episode 7: There's a Body All Right A chapbook of poems published by Model Press

Headcase: on representing concussion in poetry A brief written article that introduces my project published in Corpus 

After Impact opening talk Video of After Impact visual poetry installation opening at White Box @ Dunedin Fringe HQ

Communicating Concussion: The Poetry of Brain Injury: Video of a talk for the Department of Science Communication at the University of Otago

Concussion Episodes Conference Presentation Video recording of virtual talk presented at the University of Waikato's ALPSS conference

SCAT 3 The original poem about my concussion experience published on the Dusie Poetry Blog

Input Her Into The System Video poem featured in the MACHINES issue of Flash Frontier

"When will you go back to work" Poem included in the poetry zine n-o-b-o-d-y, issue 2, available for free download at link

Sheepish Vigil Video poem recorded for Octagon Poetry Collective's Virtual Poetry Night, May 2020, and published in print in 1964

Princess Amygdala Video poem recorded for Octagon Poetry Collective's Virtual Poetry Night, March 2020

Ultrasonic Video poem recorded for Octagon Poetry Collective's Virtual Poetry Night, March 2020