dead fern press
an online literary journal
we're nothing to write home about
This grave has no
headstone because
it contains
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us.
Anniversary- Ashley Sapp
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History of Present Complaint | HLR
After a traumatic psychotic episode, a nameless young woman recounts past psychiatric crises in an attempt to make sense of her present and fight for her future.
A genre-defying debut collection of prosetry, History of Present Complaint reveals the devastating reality of living with chronic mental illness. HLR writes of the human experience in her distinctive style: knock-out blows of blistering truths are tempered with shots of sardonic British humour, and the lines between fact and fiction, safety and danger, sanity and insanity are blurred beyond recognition through her bold poetry and sharp prose. History of Present Complaint is a damning depiction of under-funded public mental health services and serves a vital role in giving a voice to the voiceless, shining a light on the darkest corners of the human condition and forcing the reader to see what has been there all along.
A brutal and beautiful work exploring mental illness, grief, suffering and mortality, History of Present Complaint will appeal to fans of Plath’s The Bell Jar, Juliet Escoria’s Black Cloud and 4.48 Psychosis by Sarah Kane.
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