Gillian Shirreffs 

Gillian Shirreffs has a Doctor of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing. In her fiction she explores the world of illness. In her creative nonfiction she interrogates medical objects and examines clinical spaces. Her work has appeared in The Interpreter’s House, thi wurd magazine, and The Polyphony, amongst others. 

Artefacts of Illness examines an intimate relationship with breast cancer. At its centre is an archive that includes medical letters, Twitter updates, photographs, cards, gifts, reflective writing, and pieces of short fiction. Each artefact is a container within which thoughts, feelings, and experiences are held. This work is in its infancy. Its ultimate form will most likely be a hybrid text, a diary of sorts, intended to cast light on the kind of artefacts that accompany serious illness. The work will also seek to consider loneliness, anticipatory grief, and the ways in which community organically emerges at times of distress.

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