Notes from the Sick Room

Notes from the Sick Room is an investigation into the connections between physical illness and creativity. Although there are a number of books investigating mental illness and creativity, there are very few that concentrate on physical illness - cancer, HIV, tuberculosis and disabilities caused by accidents. Incapacity provides time for contemplation and creativity yet pain and discomfort detract from inspiration. Serious illness confronts the individual with the reality of death, the complacency of being is jolted by the shock of non-being. Does one record these incidences or ignore "art" in order to survive?

Steve Finbow's fiction includes Down Among the Dead, Balzac of the Badlands (Future Fiction London, 2009), Tougher Than Anything in the Animal Kingdom (Grievous Jones Press, 2011) and Nothing Matters (Snubnose Press, 2012). His biography of Allen Ginsberg in Reaktion's Critical Lives series was published in 2011. He has been a writer for Quarantine theatre company and his work appears in many international anthologies and journals. His most recent non-fiction work is Grave Desire: A Cultural History of Necrophilia (Zero Books, 2014). He is currently working on a long novel.