Field Guide to Falling Ill by Jonathan Gleason (2026) “Here was the inescapable tautology of illness: to be sick was to be other, and to be other was to be sick.” In the title essay of Jonathan Gleason’s 2026 collection, Field Guide to Falling Ill, he blends his own medical emergency into his work as an interpreter at a free clinic. His fingers inexplicably begin swelling and tingling, then the condition escalates with back pain and hands turning blue. His emergency appointment reveals a blood clot that takes multiple surgeries, long recoveries and emotional turmoil to remedy. Sectioned into this story are the times he has spent translating live for people in the throes of illness, unable to communicate directly with their doctors. An attempt to mirror language in the medical setting to convey pain, confusion, stress, and all the other complexities of sickness and injury. Through this work and his own medical trauma, Gleason has a window to the difficult navigation of medical practice and how chosen words, empathy, medicine and illness intersect. Field Guide to Falling Ill was the first winner of the Yale Nonfiction Book Prize, and marks a special and intimate addition to the genre of medical essays. Gleason is personal, thoughtful and wellresearched throughout each entry. In three essays scattered throughout the collection, Gleason views the AIDS epidemic in the past and present. An epistolary essay, Blood in the Water is a series of letters to the misidentified “Patient Zero” of the AIDS epidemic, Gaëtan Dugas. In A Difficult Man, he researches the revolutionary work and friendship of Joseph Sonnabend and Michael Callen. Their release of the publication How to Have Sex in a Epidemic: One Approach, along with Richard Berkowitz, marks “the first systematic attempt to prevent the spread of AIDS by adjusting sexual practices.” Gleason highlights their work around community research, ethical treatment and advocacy that helped change the trajectory of medical care during the AIDS epidemic. Viewing the present state in the essay Gilead, Gleason intimately explores his relationship with a man he is falling for, Dalton, who is HIV-positive. Gleason details his experience going on PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) to reduce No. 149 the chances of getting HIV to almost zero, while emotional complexity, doubt and anxiety linger. Jonathan Gleason’s command of language breaks down barriers to understanding medical concepts and his personalization of medical writing makes these topics messy, emotional stories rather than just research. Field Guide to Falling Ill is a beautifully complex reflection on the scientific field we often interact with on the worst days of our lives. It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth by Zoe Thorogood (2022) Graphic novelist Zoe Thorogood’s autobiographical work brings readers deep into her mental state. Suffering from chronic depression, loneliness and suicidal ideation, Thorogood never shies away expressing the turmoil of her inner thoughts on the page. She is working towards becoming a successful artist, but struggles to overcome bouts of deep sadness and loneliness. On a trip with her family she reflects, “Even on beautiful days like this one — it feels impossible to imagine a future where I don’t kill myself.” Thorogood’s artistic style matches her interior world, drawing the monster of depression lurking in her shadow and visually displaying the various versions of herself that have contradictory takes on situations that come up in life. At one point, she gets a brief respite from the sadness, traveling to the United States from London to pursue a crush. This moment of change alters her perspective. She writes, “Zoe was really, really, small. And that felt good. An inconsequential tiny piece of a much larger picture. It was a beautiful thought.” During a comic convention scene, she illustrates how often fans tell her that her stories are relatable, that it happens so often it’s the only thing she hears, but it’s hard to find another way to describe this work. Zoe Thorogood’s artistry is honest and chaotic, dark and real, sometimes silly and hopeful. It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth is a vulnerable and emotional honoring of the effort and tumult of living with mental illness as a survivor. By Hana Zittel
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