WHAT TO FEEL, HOW TO FEEL, Shane Neilson

Shane Neilson

Non-Fiction
ISBN-13: 978-1-990293-94-8
$21.95 CDN / $21.95 US | Trade Paperback
June 2025

In What to feel, how to feel, Shane Neilson dazzles in the lyric essay form. Focusing on non-neurotypicality, Neilson investigates his supposed difference of self while also holding to account society’s construction of that difference, moving from his early childhood to adulthood and then back again in terms of a neurodivergent fathering of his own son. Covering subjects that have yet to receive attention in Canadian literature, including how the medical profession discriminates against its own, Neilson’s poetic accounts of stigma and self-discovery interleavened with literary history mark a first in our letters.

Praise for What to feel, how to feel

Poetic, unique, and captivating, Nielson’s stunning disability treatise examines what it means to feel on the outside of societal acceptance, all while challenging perceptions of self. In this powerful read, Nielson expertly plays with structure to immerse the reader inside his brain, which is a beautiful, honest, and brilliant place to be. —Dr. Kelly S. Thompson, national bestselling memoirist of Still, I Cannot Save You