Still Here is a collection of short pieces, written over the span of eight years, by participants in the Therapeutic Writing Group at Mount Sinai Hospital's Clinic for HIV-Related Concerns.

Previous HIV anthologies were published prior to the advent of combination antiretroviral therapies when HIV infection, for the most part, remained a fatal illness.

Still Here emphasizes living with HIV as a treatable illness, yet one still fraught with losses, medication side effects, stigma and the unknown. These men's stories brim with hope, resilience, eroticism and humour, capturing a heartfelt search for wholeness.

Allan Peterkin is a psychiatrist and the author of six books on medicine and cultural history. He is a founding editor of ARS MEDICA: A Journal of Medicine, the Arts and Humanities. (www.ars-medica.ca)

Julie Hann is a registered occupational therapist and professional practice leader who has worked in psychiatry at Mount Sinai Hospital for nineteen years. She provides service to the Clinic fo HIV-Related Concerns and the General Psychiatry Day Treatment Program.

A.F.V.

A Pound of Flesh
AidSpeak

B., Steven

Goodbye Traitor

B.R.S.

Lost and Found

Berg, Earl Dalgliesh

A Welcome Change

Berger, Edward

Dear John
The Mustang Pill

Brown, Ellington

Sweet Bitter
Untitled I
Untitled II
Vacant Faces

Bye, C.R.

A Christmas List of Loss

Chaplin, Kenn

A Sense of Peace after Thirteen Years
Chopin, Roman Polanski, and a Cab

Cocchiola, Bernard

Monday
Patience
Shaken

Cranston, Richard

The Stranger

D.E.W.

My Friend
Untitled
Why Don’t You Call

D.V.

My Gift to Science
The Stranger

Fotheringham, Philip

Dying with Dignity?
Fortuitous Tsunami
Grief’s Grip
Losses Drove Me Wild
Lost in the Landscape

Jones, Colin

Sensory Deprivation

Kalogirou, Michael

Liferider

King, David

Changes
It’s Over
Taken by the Tide

Lobodzinski, Richard

Never Can Say Goodbye

M. L.

Health Care
Friends

M.H.

Sustiva Dreams

P.J.K.

HIV-101
Luck?

Peters, Jake

Hibiscus Blooms
The Pink Postcard

R., Brian.

Changes

R.T.

Jacques and I: The Decision
Jacques and I: The Relationship

Robinson, Greg

Still Puzzled

S., Doug.

In Limbo

S.P.

Jimmy Thinks About Sex
Lunacy

Scott, Peter

A Friendship I Lost
A Select Period of Time at Work
An Illness
Ch…ch…ch…changes
Loss
Loss II
My Brush with OHIP
Negligence or Incompetence?
The Holiday from Hell
Veruca Salt

Smith, Paul

Alterations in Life
Good-byes

Stewart, William

A Matter of Luck
Parting Breath

Thaczuk, Derek

Doctor Blaylock
The Black Birds
There Finally Came a Day

W.G.M.

Waiting My Turn

National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data

Publisher: Toronto: Life Rattle Press, 2008
Series: Life rattle new writers series 1200 5266 29
Numbers: ISBN: 978-1-927923-35-8
RC606.54.S74 2007 362.196'979200922 C2008-900132-X
Subjects:
1. AIDS (Disease)--Patients--Canada--Biography.
2. HIV-positive persons--Canada--Biography.
3. AIDS (Disease)--Psychological aspects.
4. HIV infections--Psychological aspects.
I Peterkin, Allan D. II. Hanne, Julie, 1960-