iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Bextatic @bextatic.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Come hear me read and enjoy some poetry in the park this Saturday! Copies of Multimorbid published by @kithbooks.bsky.social will be available! I hear they will also have snacks and tea!

Title: We Read Together Text: Featuring Amanda Merpaw, Rebecca Wood, Guy Ewing. Sept 25, Withrow Park (Logan and Danforth). Image, two blooming pink peonies with blurred greenery in the background.

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Bextatic @bextatic.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Suggested replies to a chapbook rejection email I just received:

Suggested replies “Thank you for letting me know.” “Thank you for your reply.” “Bummer!”

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Bextatic @bextatic.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Friendly neighbourhood crafter at the farmers market this morning! Crochet hats, pottery, cross stitch, earrings, and my book. “Hello, here are all the things that I make.”

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Bextatic @bextatic.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Thank you GTA Disability Coalition for featuring me in your Community Profiles this month! Check out their website and sign up for their newsletter to hear about the work they are doing in Toronto gtadc.ca/community-pr...

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Bextatic @bextatic.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

Happy Pride! ✨🏳️‍⚧️✨🏳️‍🌈✨

Yonge street after the trans march on Friday evening. Cloudy sky, tall buildings and a second floor window with a trans flag, pink heart light, colourful star light and colourful lit up balloons.

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Bextatic @bextatic.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

Launch! That! Book! Thank you everyone who came out to the launch of Multimorbid last night! I could not imagine an event like this when I was isolated and exhausted writing these poems in my bed. Thank you @kithbooks.bsky.social for all of your work, care and support to make Multimorbid exist!

Picture of me smiling standing behind a table with a dark purple table cloth that has a copy of Multimorbid, the cross stitch from the cover photo, and bunches of flowers in colours that match the book in purple and green vases. Next to the table is a wooden easel with a poster sized print of the book cover.

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Bextatic @bextatic.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Multimorbid has been out for 1 whole week! If your book shelves are too full digital copies are available now! www.kithbooks.com/digital/p/mu...

A stack of books; Multimorbid by Rebecca Wood. Book cover has an image of a cross stitch with purple flowers and green leaves. The books are in front of plant pots holding marigolds, pansies and geraniums.

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Bextatic @bextatic.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

Thank you to everyone who attended the virtual book launch for Multimorbid! Especially Sarah and Anna who read their own beautiful pieces! It was magic to share this book with all of you!

Zoom room picture of smiling people attending the virtual book launch of Multimorbid by Rebecca Wood

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Bextatic @bextatic.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

My second review! See what @chronic.pain.in.books on Instagram thinks of Multimorbid!

@chronic.pain.in.books Teal background with white text that reads “A raw, relatable masterpiece for our community “ Image of book cover show a cross stitch in a bamboo hoop of the title MULTIMORBID surrounded by green leaves and purple flowers. Below the cross stitch it says “By Rebecca Wood.”

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Bextatic @bextatic.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

Canadian distribution for @kithbooks.bsky.social in progress! Still need a copy? Order now at www.kithbooks.com/shop/p/multi... Release date May 28!

White envelopes with kith return labels ready to be filled with copies of Multimorbid by Rebecca Wood. The book sits on top of seven envelopes. Cover is a cross stitch with green leaves and purple flowers surrounding the word Multimorbid.

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Bextatic @bextatic.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

We are one month away from the release day of Multimorbid! There will be both a virtual launch and an in-person event in Toronto. In person details coming soon! Register for the virtual book launch here: forms.gle/odiZuXNvDgmL... Saturday May 30, 2026 8pm-9pm over zoom, free!

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Bextatic @bextatic.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

"This is so exciting. This is so exciting. I'm so excited" and I am also very very tired...but I couldn't wait! Watch me unbox Multimorbid from bed! Thank you @kithbooks.bsky.social it is SO pretty. Pre-order now www.kithbooks.com/shop/p/multi... Release date May 28, 2026.

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Bextatic @bextatic.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

I got to write the words AND stitch the cover! A dream! Multimorbid is available for preorders now! Release Date: May 28, 2026 kithbooks.com/shop/p/multimorbid @kithbooks.bsky.social

A circular cross stitch with the word “Multimorbid” in the centre surrounded by purple flowers and green leaves. It is leaning on a box filled with colourful embroidery thread.

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Bextatic @bextatic.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

“Multimorbid’s oftentimes darkly comic take on disability leaves everyone complicit and a little bit scarred. Welcome to @bextatic.bsky.social's multiaffected, multifaceted, multimorbid life.” @kithbooks.bsky.social Release Date: May 28, 2026 preorders are OPEN kithbooks.com/shop/p/multimorbid

Multimorbid
by Rebecca Wood

The book's cover is a photograph of an embroidered wreath of flowers surrounding the title. The piece is held in a wooden hoop set on a background of aida cloth embroidered directly with text reading 'by Rebecca Wood'. This cover image is set in a frame and overlayed over two framed wreath sections breaking the corners.

The following poem is framed and accompanied by a cross stitched rectangle that reads MULTIMORBID

There is Grief in Fatigue

slow-moving body through honey
anchored
pulled
towards bed
caffeine comfort
ritual only
liquid warmth wrapping
these tired bones

softness in slowness
and sadness and solitude
letting go of tasks I
imagined for today
writing and cleaning and connecting
taming thoughts I have tamed before
the fear of forever
or worse days to come

I grieve the loss of today
I bring into focus the joy in the rest

soul swelling knowing
my comfort capacity
self-satisfaction
spilling over warmth
of blankets
of meals from my freezer
that I prepared
in a moment of energy ease
strategizing security
for these days
when this body of mine
is pulled
anchored
sticky
fatigued

The following prose selection is framed and accompanied by a cross stitched rectangle that reads by Rebecca Wood

The resident presses my belly through the blue hospital gown. I feel his cold fingertips through the fabric, watch his expression and wonder if he is judging the depth of pressure needed to move through my flesh. I have been in this position before with other residents; naked under open-backed gown, being touched and waiting to see what they feel. My isolation means I haven’t been touched this intimately in over a year. I examine his furrowed brow trying to interpret forehead crease text, writing the pathway of his thoughts as he touches me and visualizes textbook diagrams of organs. Did he learn this diagnostic touch on the first day of class, partnered up with another student? Did they practice feeling their way through each other's fat and fascia, teaching each finger to discern organ arrangements? Am I the fattest person he has had to feel and does that make it more difficult for him to confidently find the contours of my contents? It delights me that this tactile testing, dreamed up by a history of humans trying to understand our insides, hasn’t been entirely replaced by scans and scopes. This diagnostic feeling, a resident probing my belly, is always the beginning of my triennial colonoscopy. We will look inside, but first, touch me.
- “Somewhat obese but otherwise well”

The following text appears on a background of aida cloth scattered with embroidery floss bobbins wrapped in the the colours of the front cover piece

"Rich in metaphor, with a beautiful
sense of rhythm, Multimorbid promises
to be a relatable read for some and
illuminating for others. A deeply moving
poetic expression of embodied experience."
Audrey T. Carroll, author of The Gaia Hypothesis
and In My Next Queer Life, I Want to Be

“I am trying to cultivate desire for my own body. I’m curious if it might be a lifeline to feeling well.” In this multi form, mixed genre collection, Rebecca Wood wrestles the body—both fact and idea—in an attempt to fold illness and expectation into one sense of self. Honest at times to the point of discomfort, Wood takes us into the headspace and heartspace of the chronically ill. What does it take to seek care in a pathologised body. What does it take to receive it when you’ve been stripped of your worth. Steeped in the medical, the merciful,
the harsh light of grief, Woods words offer grace for the knowing and truth for the rest.”

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Bextatic @bextatic.bsky.social · 05/07/2025

I’m so proud to share my essay “Depressive Wayfaring” is out now in the Canadian Mental Health Association magazing TRANSITION. Available for subscribers here: sk.cmha.ca/documents/tr... Two years ago I published my first poem and it has been a goal to appear in print in a Canadian publication!

Cover of TRANSITION magazine visible under an open copy that shows the title “Depressive Wayfaring” by Rebecca Wood. There is an image of a compass and the first part of the text of the essay is visible “Trauma is cumulative. Life experiences later on top of one another to create a palimpsest map that leads the body towards safety, marking pathways, rerouting nervous system responses for self protection…”

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Bextatic @bextatic.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

I am so pleased to share my poem “Illness Survival Skills” published this week by Kneebrace Press kneebracepress.com/2025/03/25/i... This poem will appear in my debut chapbook “Multimorbid” out this year with kith books.

Text reads kneebracepress.com
Illness Survival Skills
By Rebecca Wood
Finding the edges of functionality
When sick is not contagious
Body heaving with thought distortions
Incapable mind bile
Bitter

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Bextatic @bextatic.bsky.social · 22/03/2025

Thank you @ms-trippingonair.bsky.social and @douglasmcintyre.bsky.social for the opportunity to read this excellent book! I was diagnosed with MS around the same time as Ardra and I loved learning more about her life through her funny and engaging writing style. www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Cover of Fall-osophy: My Trip through Life with MS, a memoir by Ardra Sheppard. Below the title there is a drawing of a woman in a black dress. She is shown from shoulders down as though she has fallen with her feet in the air. One foot is wearing heels. The other foot is bare and the shoe has fallen off. Above the title is a drawing of a cane. Background of cover is pink, orange and green. Quote in the top corner “Bright, and spilling over with insight” -Rebecca Taussig author of Sitting Pretty

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Bextatic @bextatic.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

My piece “MS Clinic” is in this beautiful issue of Feels! The launch was so lovely and Hannah, Sarah and Therese did an amazing job editing this work. I am honoured to be included with such amazing writers and artists! feelszine.com/products/dis...

Image of the title page of my essay. Title MS Clinic at the top of the page. Graphic of a chapel stained glass window. Text at the bottom of the page by Rebecca Wood and page number 23. Below is the picture of the cover of Feels. Text Feels in pink at the top, painted art in the centre and text Disability issue at the bottom. Image border is purple.

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Bextatic @bextatic.bsky.social · 30/11/2024

Come see me next week at the Disability Holiday Market! Sunday December 8, 11am-5pm at Wychwood Barns 601 Christie Street. Visit my instagram @knots_and_clay to see the hats, earrings and ornaments I have been making!

Image Description: The Disability Holiday Market graphic, featuring a light blue background with snowflakes. At the top are the words "The Disability Collective & Wagner-Green Centre for Access and Inclusion present" in capital letters. Below are the words "The Disability Holiday Market" in a cursive font. Below are the words "Sunday, December 8, 2024 | 11 AM - 5 PM”, "Wychwood Barns", "Crafts | Food & Drinks | Gifts", and "Free Admission", all in capital letters. All text is in blue. At the top left and right corners are bunches of flowers in red, cream, and grey colours. At the bottom left and right corners are green evergreen trees. At the bottom is a layer of snow. In the centre of the snow is a blue booth with snow and a sprig of holly on top. The roof of the booth has dark blue vertical lines on it. In the centre of the booth is a kinara, mittens, a snow globe, a cake on a cake stand, a plate of jelly donuts, a menorah, and a dreidel. Underneath is a string of lights. Below are The Disability Collective and the Miles Nadal JCC logos. Below the booth are the words "thedisabilitycollective.com" and “mnjcc.org/access” in blue capital letters. To the left and right of the booths are stacks of wrapped presents in blue, white, and yellow hues. Beside the presents on either side are groups of people smiling and enjoying the Market

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Bextatic @bextatic.bsky.social · 26/09/2024

Thrilled to receive an honourable mention in the League of Canadian Poets Summer Lovin’ Contest! Congratulations to the winners and all the honourable mentions! Read the winning poems here: poets.ca/summerlovin2...

Screen shot of honourable mentions for the Summer Lovin’ Contest. Full list of names and poem titles can be read with screen reader at https://poets.ca/summerlovin2024/

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