Invitations

What would you do if you were told you had Parkinson's disease in the prime of your life?



Would you wallow in self-pity, or would you continue to write poems and stories with great enthusiasm? Would you use your disease as an excuse to withdraw from the world, focusing solely on your physical and mental health, or would you challenge yourself to explore new ways to write about Parkinson's, perhaps through sonnets and other forms of poetry?



In Invitations: Fiction and Poetry From A Life of Writing by Bruce Ballard, you'll witness how one writer navigates these questions, not only through his writing about Parkinson's but also through the exploration of related themes such as life, love, sickness, and death. From autobiographical poetry to fictional short stories, from the gay men he has found community with to the disease he continues to grapple with, Invitations is one writer's exploration of his life through multiple genre-defying lenses.