Not Getting Better: Polly Atkin on Some of Us Just Fall

All Book Fringe events are FREE in person + online | no tickets required (but you can reserve them here to get a book/reminder of the event)

As part of Book Fringe 2023 at Lighthouse, writer Polly Atkin joins us to discuss her long road from unexplained health problems, to eventual diagnosis, to learning to live better with her body and, with Some of Us Just Fall, to sharing her story.

After experiencing years of medical gaslighting and misogyny, Polly Atkin was finally diagnosed with two genetic chronic conditions in her thirties. In a fascinating blend of memoir, pathology and nature writing, Some of Us Just Fall is a deeply personal exploration of narratives of health, history of illness and the role nature can play in learning to live within a chronically ill body.

Polly is joining Lighthouse as part of this year’s Book Fringe: ALT Edition in partnership with two other Edinburgh indie bookshops – Argonaut and Typewronger.

Read more about Book Fringe here

Our Speaker

Polly Atkin is a multi-award-winning writer, essayist and poet. She is the author of the poetry collections Basic Nest Architecture, which won a Northern Writers’ Award, and Much With Body, which was longlisted for the Laurel Prize, as well as Recovering Dorothy, the first biography to focus on Dorothy Wordsworth’s later life and illness. A strong advocate for the need for more disabled voices in the publishing industry, Polly co-founded the Open Mountain initiative at Kendal Mountain Festival, which seeks to centre voices that are currently at the margins of outdoor, mountain and nature writing. Born in Nottingham, Polly lives in Grasmere, Cumbria.