Ten new books about Long Covid, chronic illness, and disability

2022 brought us some of the first books on Long Covid, including The Long Covid Survival Guide, The Long Haul, and The Long Covid Handbook. Now, as we forge into the fifth year of the Covid-19 pandemic, more books and anthologies are emerging authored by people with Long Covid and related conditions, as well as broader disability narratives reflecting on the pandemic.

Here are ten recently published books on Long Covid, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), chronic illness, and disability.

1. Pillow Writers Anthology 1: Near-Life Experiences (self-published, 2024)
   This anthology is the first published work of the Pillows Writers, an international ME writing group that hosts frequent virtual meetings. The collection features the work of 17 different authors living with chronic illness as they “offer their thoughts on everything from gaslighting and grieving to birds and baking.” The collection will make you laugh and cry, and help readers better understand the experience of living with ME. All proceeds of the book go directly to the advocacy group #MEAction.
    

2. Illness Politics and Hashtag Activism, By Lisa Diedrich (University of Minnesota Press, 2024)
   This insightful book by Stony Brook University professor Lisa Diedrich examines a variety of disability hashtags commonly used on social media, such as #CripTheVote, showing how “illness- and disability-oriented hashtags serve as portals into how and why illness and disability are sites of political struggle.” You can order the paperback, or read a free copy online, compliments of the University of Minnesota Press.
    

3. Moving Mountains: Writing Nature through Illness and Disability, Edited by Louise Kenward (Footnote Press, 2023)
   Featuring the writing of twenty-five authors living with chronic illness and disability from around the world, this anthology is “nature experienced wholly and acutely.” The first-of-its-kind anthology is divided into sections by elements like “water,” “air,” and “earth” and features an essay by Alec Finlay, the artist behind Scotland’s Covid-19 memorial.
    

4. In it for the Long Haul: A Long Covid Journey, by Jon Douglas (self-published, 2024)
   This slim memoir recounts a father’s experience with Long Covid after a 2021 Covid-19 infection turned his life upside down, leading to a “deeply personal rediscovery journey.” The book is free, but the author requests donations go to Long Covid research groups, including Polybio Research Foundation.
    

5. Disability Intimacy: Essays on Love, Care, and Desire, by Alice Wong (Vintage Books, 2024)
   Following activist, editor, and writer Alice Wong’s canonical Disability Visibility: First Person Stories from the Twenty-first Century and memoir Year of the Tiger, this highly anticipated collection focuses on many interpretations of intimacy including self-love, caregiving, and sexual discovery. Read the opening essay “Unspooling” by Nicole Lee Schroeder, which we republished this month..
    

6. The Long Covid Reader, Edited by Mary Ladd (Long Hauler Publishing, 2023)
   This expansive crowd-funded anthology features the writing and poetry of 45 authors including artist Pato Herbert, Emily Fraser, Rachel Robles, Nikki Stewart, Amy S. of the Long Covid newsletter The Tonic and many others, giving “a humanized view of chronic illness while offering a poignant reminder of the millions of people with Long Covid.”.
    

7. Tilt, by Morgan Stephens (Aldrich Press, 2024)
   A contributing author of The Long Covid Survival Guide, Stephens chronicles her experience with Long Covid in free verse in this debut poetry collection. “I hope those disabled by Long Covid and/or chronic illness can find solace in TILT,” Stephens wrote on her Substack. “As each day adds up and our disability wears on us, knowing we are not alone can be a small comfort. It has been for me.”.
    

8. Move That Cloud, by Dylan’s Dad (Grow By Reading LLC, 2024)
   Written by the father of a son who is bed-bound with Long Covid, this picture book helps facilitate discussions around “emotional health, self-awareness, perspective, and perseverance.” Proceeds from the book go to fundraising for Dylan’s medical expenses. Read more about it in The Star.
    

9. Do “Something”: My Attempt at Nutritional Therapy to Minimize Long-Covid Symptoms (aka the Only Place I’m Running is Out of Hope), by Vicky Gilpin (Invictus Phoenix Publishing, 2024)
   This new title is part personal journey and part academic research into nutrition and chronic illness from an author living with Long Covid for over three and a half years. However, it is not “a victim-blaming, patient-shaming, “nutritional or lifestyle changes solve everything,” manifesto,” author Vicky Gilpin wrote. Do “Something” came out this month and includes original illustrations by Shannon Cook and Ramona Walker..
    

10. Viral Underclass: The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide, By Steven W. Thrasher (Celadon, 2022)
    Newly out in paperback this year, this classic was the center of attention of viral paparazzi photos last weekend when Violet Affleck displayed it while walking in Los Angeles, California while wearing an N-95. The book is a deep dive into how marginalized people are made vulnerable by viruses and how “viruses are also used as justification for the policies and systems that marginalize people in the first place.”

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