Open letter to Arthur Frank (on reading At the Will of the Body)

Dear Arthur Frank I’m writing to say thank you for your extraordinary book At the Will of the Body. It is … More

Lifesaving Poems: Tom Andrews’s ‘Reading Frank O’Hara in the Hospital’

Reading Frank O’Hara in the Hospital 1 The IV drips its slow news. So long, lean and turbulent morning! … More

There were just a few of us in the room, gathered round a table. I had been invited to … More

A Tuesday, appropriately. (Tuesday being the day I was formally diagnosed.) Poetic, it strikes me now. But at the time, … More

After they left, the house went very quiet. No one really knew about the quietness but me. I played a … More

Yesterday was the sixth anniversary of my diagnosis with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (NHL), an aggressive cancer of the lymphatic system. I … More

Tracks 2 am: moonlight. The train has stopped out in the middle of the plain. Far away, points of … More

We walked into the brunt light, towards the hospital. The air was dry, February-cold. Traffic was going about its business. … More

The way I found out, just as with my diagnosis, was via a segment of a conversation about other things. … More