Disgust

The ekphrastic stories in this collection contemplate what it means to be sick. Navigating the experience of disease, aging, pain, and medical trauma, these characters contend with the impact of the turmoil of the body. They frankly explore the different ways that illness can ravage the body and soul, and how it impacts families, friendships, romance, sexuality, spirituality, and our future. Rejecting the censorious perspectives of toxic positivity, romanticization, and stolid acceptance, these stories face the reality of everyday suffering and how it changes us.

Lorette C. Luzajic has wrestled with breast cancer, a botched leg surgery, autoimmune disease, chronic pain disorders, and medical oppression. Known for her work as editor of The Ekphrastic Review, and for writing and teaching ekphrasis and flash fiction, she turns her attention here through ekphrastic small fictions (and one longer story) to the question of how we live inside imperfect bodies.