After a Christmas Eve shooting that devastated author Emily Pohl-Weary's family, she began to hunt through the sorrow and trauma for a sense of hopefulness. In the tradition of Carolyn Forche, Ernesto Cardenal, and Shu Ting, Ghost Sickness is a poetry of witness.

It chronicles the impact of violence and poverty on an inner-city Toronto neighbourhood, the power of empathy, and the resilience of the human spirit.