A NEW “stigma-busting” book about HIV, with a foreword by Scots Makar, Jackie Kay, is being launched for World Aids Day.
Disclosures: Rewriting the Narrative About HIV has been edited by Angie Spoto, artist in residence at HIV Scotland, the national HIV policy organisation
for Scotland.
The book, published by Stewed Rhubarb Press, will include poetry, stories, nonfiction, and artwork from people living with HIV.
Much of the work has been developed by Colin Herd, Peter McCune, Katy Hasty, and Spoto herself. All have led workshops for HIV Scotland’s Positive Stories project, which has helped to prepare the narratives of HIV survivors for print.
Several contributors have been invited to read from Disclosures today at the Scottish Parliament’s World Aids Day reception.
The first of its kind in Scotland, the Positive Stories project is a series of creative writing workshops, pairing those living with HIV with professional writers, to share their experience of the illness.
The hope is that Disclosures will challenge the misconceptions that people have of HIV.
As Kay writes in her foreword: “We should never underestimate the power of stories to heal and to reveal, to shape and to make, to guide and change the tide.
“And we must never forget what it costs to share a story—the first steps are always brave ones.”
According to HIV Scotland, there are now 5206 people living in Scotland with HIV.
However, according to Health Protection Scotland figures published in October, the number of newly diagnosed HIV infections in Scotland increased by 16% in the year to 2017, from 197 in 2016 to 228. This is while numbers of cases fell by 17% in the UK in general.
Nathan Sparling, interim chief executive of HIV Scotland, said: “The fight against the virus isn’t over. We must not let stigma get in the way of ensuring everyone’s right to a long, healthy and fulfilling life is realised.”
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