Small Acts of Disappearance

Small Acts of Disappearance is a collection of ten essays that describe the author's affliction with an eating disorder which begins in high school and escalates into life-threatening anorexia over the next ten years.

Fiona Wright, a highly regarded poet and critic, provides an account of her illness that is informed by a keen sense of its contradictions and deceptions. She offers an unsparing consideration of her own actions and motivations, highlighting the empowering effects of hunger.

The essays offer perspectives on the eating disorder at various stages in Wright's life: at university, where she finds herself in a radically different social world to the one she grew up in; in Sri Lanka as a fledgling journalist; in Germany as a young writer; and during her hospital treatments back in Sydney.

Wright combines research, travel writing, memoir, and literary discussions, examining how writers like Christina Stead, Carmel Bird, Tim Winton, John Berryman, and Louise Glück deal with anorexia and addiction. These discussions are interwoven with accounts of family life and detailed, humorous views of hunger-induced situations that are as compelling as those in Wright's poetry.

Wonderful news - Fiona Wright has taken out the Nita B Kibble Award for women's life writing.