Fit Notes: feminist writing on illness and work

Publication date: August 7 2025
£11.99 RRP


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Fit Notes is a book of feminist stories, essays and poetry exploring the intersections of illness, bodies, gender and work.

In this illuminating and essential anthology, Ache brings together nineteen feminist writers to explore illness, pain, gender and work. Sickness is an unavoidable part of life, whether we live with chronic health conditions or are knocked by bouts of illness.

In Fit Notes, writers consider what it means to live in a society that prioritises productivity above all else, while living in a body that resists shift work, desk jobs and commutes. Our writers ask what it means to live, work and rest in a body that hurts.

An artist joins the dots between rest, love and survival. A waitress wonders if Shakespeare’s players ever skived from their acting jobs. A bartender sleeps in a pub toilet. A librarian removes forty-thousand books from a library and tends to her weeping fistula. A poet’s application for PIP is denied.

With writing from:

Vida Adamczewski

Hattie Atkins

Maroula Blades

Cat Casey

Rebecca Coxon

Laura Elliott

Susanna Fasciolo

T. Laundy

Susan L. Lin

Laura Mehers

Katrina Millar

Kirstie Millar

Naomi Morris

Hatty Nestor

Keev Ó Baoill

Tomilola Olumide

Rosalind Reynolds-Grey

Steph Roberts

Carrie Sear

Laura Stanley

Elspeth Walker

Cover art by Cecilia Reeve

Edited by Ache: Kirstie Millar, Rosalind Reynolds-Grey, Katrina Millar and Laura Mehers

BOOK DETAILS:

Publication date: August 7 2025

ISBN: 978-1-0682858-0-6

Paperback: 138 pages