Hey, Susie Bright's interview with me was on the most popular blog in the world (BoingBoing) as ranked by Technorati. Read it with reader comments here.

Also, Jodi Bassett of my favorite ME/CFIDS site, A Hummingbird's Guide (where you can also learn why ME is the preferred term and CFIDS needs to go), wrote a great review of Pathogenesis:

Review of Pathogenesis by Peggy Munson

Noelle Kocot describes Munson's work as "free from a lot of the burden of contemporary poetry conventions, [existing] like a small island in the fiery sun, alone, yet willing to be utterly beautiful, utterly strange and utterly itself."

After reading this book, I'd have to agree. I know very little about poetry, and to be honest I dislike most of the poetry I’ve read, but I got so much out of this little book. Peggy’s use of words is so unique. So clever. I’m now a dedicated poetry convert!

Pathogenesis made me cry within just a few minutes of starting reading. Admittedly I have the same devastating and disabling neurological disease (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis) to a similar severity as Peggy, so I could really relate, but even without that, this book is just so powerful. I can't imagine anyone with any compassion or humanity coming away unaffected.

It's unlike any other poetry I have read, it is so beautiful.... and at the same time so, so sad. Readers get a brief taste of what it is like to live with a devastating neurological and cardiovascular disease, as well as how much the extreme level of suffering is increased when you have a disease that is subject to a publically accepted campaign of misinformation, misrepresentation and outright lies, for mere financial gain. When you are so ill but get almost no appropriate medical care, or are treated unfairly and cruelly by friends and family, because of these same scientifically unsupportable lies.

The last poem in the book in particular just kills me.

The book is also beautifully and simply designed.

Peggy Munson is immensely talented. Those not familiar with severe M.E. can have no idea what an achievement this small book is, and how much pain and suffering must have gone into the writing of it: just a few minutes at a time each day. Each minute spent writing having an immense physical cost as well as being very difficult due to the profound cognitive problems caused by M.E.

If you are a poet, I think this book will inspire you to write. If you love poetry or just love the clever and unusual use of words, I highly recommend this book. It’s a little gem.

-- Jodi Bassett, A Hummingbird's Guide