Bøker av Suzan Digh

For many LGBTQIA+ people, coming out is not easy. For some, it is horrific. This poetic form story explores the experiences of a girl who was put into psychiatric care shortly after coming out LGBT. This "care" started with psychiatric medication and ended with her involuntary psychiatric hospitalization where she was treated with electroconvulsive (shock) therapy - with parental consent - at the age of 16. She is in Canada, where medical care is free.This experience was fundamental in shaping the subsequent decade of her life, and the choices she made. The poems and vignettes in this book primarily come from the notes/journals she kept throughout. It was pretty close to a decade after shock therapy (ECT) ended before she overcame the shattering this treatment caused: firstly as a direct result of the medical interventions themselves and secondly as a result of her unhealthy choices in coping mechanisms (sex, drugs and alcohol). Electroconvulsive therapy is a dark thing. Psychological trauma is a very dark thing. The story is intended to be cathartic, but the wade through the darkness is... well.. dark. The author wants the story to be shared, spread, known - if it helps even one LGBTQIA+ person to know that hope exists outside the trauma... it is a success.

This is a lesbian love story, told in poetry. It is both a story of true love, and a true love story - and it's an open exploration of one LGBTQIA+ couple's relationship from the moment they met, to their happily ever after. It is also a conversation between Puss and Cunt - a conversation many vaginas might want to have, if vaginas could have conversations.The story is mature, but not specifically graphic. The language used within is reflected in the title, so ... some people might be bothered by that, but remember that the story is not about the language - these words are being reclaimed - it's about love.

This workbook contains 28 daily prompts based on the plot of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Each day includes a plot point summary, a To Do item (the goal of the day), a brief description of a scene for you to write, and just over 6 blank pages for you to write in. If you follow the prompts and write 1786 words per day, at the end of the month, you will have a 50,000 word initial draft of your novel!A randomly selected excerpt/example, Day 9: (MC = Main Character. names in [ ] will be your own character names, once you create them)Day 9Austen: Mr. Collins, a distant cousin of the Bennet family, arrives and proposes to Elizabeth, who declines.To Do: Create the "thing the MC does not want". This will be the antithesis of the MC's dreams and goals. This is who the "foil" was created for in Day 8.The Scene: The antithesis [Mr. Collins] arrives unexpectedly. An arranged marriage partner? A blind date? Someone from high school? A former lover who has returned to the country after 2 years posted overseas? As the scene progresses, show the MC's growing unease - is she shifting in her seat, trying to escape, sneaking to the bathroom to call her own landline for an excuse to leave? Use dialogue and actions to create tension and enhance the discomfort.

Dive into a journey of self-discovery and resilience with this alternative (and dark) collection of found poetry. This collection explores one woman's story as she navigated the intricate world of mental health, gender identity/orientation, and societal acceptance.Through the artful reconstruction (and deconstruction) of an early draft version of the author's forthcoming novel, each poem unveils the raw emotions and challenges faced in the wake of coming out as queer. Through the sometimes brutal expression of internal conflict and the harsh reality of external pressures, these words capture her very difficult struggle for belonging.With unflinching honesty, the poet navigates the complexities of sexuality, medical interventions, and the allure of escapism through sex, drugs, and alcohol. Each word, meticulously selected page by page, paints a vivid portrait of resilience.A testament to the power of expression and how transforming a text can be emotionally transformative, this is a journey of acceptance, understanding, and ultimately, self-love.

The poems are free-verse blackout and erasure poems "found" in an early draft of a creative non-fiction story about the struggles that stemmed from one lesbian's coming out experience. These struggles included mental health concerns, confusion around sexual identity and acceptance, finding oneself, and overcoming substance misuse. The poetry is dark, because the experience of coming out in a small rural town and being medically "treated" for being gay is a dark topic.These poems have also been published (without the original blacked-out images) in Out in the Dark: a queer road to mental health.