Nina Illingworth Dot Com

Editor’s note: this is one of the first short stories I wrote after more than a decade away from writing fiction and was originally carried on my blog sportsballchic.com in the summer of 2015. My intention, was to portray a man struggling to overcome his own depression and anxiety problems after a long period of disconnection/isolation in the most humane, realistic way possible. All too often, stories about mental health begin and end with tired, melodramatic tropes that fail to recognize that an alienating sense of “otherness” may in fact be a completely rational response to an unfeeling, unloving and at times completely absurd world around us. But for time and pressure, we are all Walter Emanuel and it is my sincerest hope that I’ve told his story with the dignity, compassion and hopefulness it deserves. – NI