Sign in Subscribe
3 min read

Touch Me, I’m Sick!

Hello everyone! It’s been a long time since you heard from me. I’ve been working on my next anthology, Disability Vulnerability, and enjoy summer after a harrowing 9 weeks of bed rest. I’m delighted to offer 7 hardcovers of Touch Me, I’m Sick: A Memoir in Essays by Margeaux Feldman available now from Beacon Press for anyone residing in the US or Canada.

A graphic with a hot pink background and sparkle detail. Overlaid, a pair of white hands touching the bare shoulder and neck of a white individual, face not pictured. On top of the image of the person, in semi-transparent, bold, blue lettering and in all-caps, the book’s title: Touch Me, I’m Sick. Underneath, in smaller, black font, the subtitle: A Memoir in Essays. At the center-bottom of the image, the author’s name in white, bold letters and in all-caps: Margeaux Feldman.

About the Book

The forms of intimacy and care that we’ve been sold are woefully inadequate and problematic. In a world that treats those who are sick and traumatized as problems in need of a cure, nonbinary writer, artist, educator, and Instagram creator Margeaux Feldman offers a different story.

Trauma, which all too often manifests as chronic illness, tells us that there is something deeply wrong with the world we live in. A world that promotes individualism, fractures us from community through violence and systemic oppression, and leaves us traumatized. That is what we need to cure.

While unveiling their own lived experiences caregiving for their sick father, losing their mother, surviving sexual abuse, and grappling with their own chronic illness, Feldman provides roadmaps for embracing queer modes of care, or “hysterical intimacies,” that reject the notion that those who have been labeled sick are broken. Feldman looks at the lengthy history of branding girls, women, and femmes—and their desires—as sick, from the treatment of hysterics by Jean-Martin Charcot and Sigmund Freud in the 19th and 20th centuries. What emerges is a valiant call for rethinking the ways we seek healing.

This compelling blend of theory, personal narrative, and cultural criticism offers a path forward for reimagining the shapes and forms that intimacy, care, and interdependence can take.

‘

A white, nonbinary person sits on red brick steps. They are wearing dark pants, an oversized, dark gray corduroy shirt, unbuttoned, which reveals a gray t-shirt underneath. They wear a simple gold chain and oversized, round tortoise-shell glasses, and tattoos appear on their hands, neck, and visible part of their chest. Behind them, green vines cover a gray concrete wall. In the forefront of the frame is an out-of-focus, light green leaf from a nearby plant. 

About the Author

Margeaux Feldman (they/them) is a writer, a public educator, and an artist. They hold an MFA in Creative Writing from CalArts and a PhD in English literature and sexual diversity studies from the University of Toronto. Their essays have been published in The Sonora Review, GUTS: A Canadian Feminist Magazine, PRISM, Rabble, and The Ex-Puritan, amongst others. They also created the online community Softcore Trauma, where they share memes and writing that testify to their experiences living with trauma and chronic illness. They currently live in Los Angeles with their 2 elderly cats. You can learn more about them on their website, www.margeauxfeldman.com, and read new writing from them in their newsletter CARESCAPES.

Details

1) Any disabled person in the US or Canada is eligible to receive a hardback. You do not need to disclose any details about your disability.

If you already received a book from one of my previous giveaways, please consider letting other people have a chance.

2) If you do not receive a reply that means the books have been claimed or you did not include all the required information.

3) Send an email to DisabilityVisibilityProject@gmail.com with 'Margeaux Feldman’ in the title of the message. Do not reply to this post!!

4) Include the following information in your message:

  • First and last name
  • Mailing address

Please note: I will send this information along with your email address to the publisher. They are responsible for confirming your details and sending you the book. Please be patient!

Published by:

Alice Wong

Member discussion