ABOUT JOE
Writer. Survivor. Still figuring out the rest.
His memoir Dismantled grew from his experience of stage IVa mouth cancer and the years spent rebuilding afterwards. He also publishes fantasy and speculative fiction as Isaac J Burns.
Before and after are rarely that simple.
THE PERSON BEHIND THE PAGES
Joe Butler was born in Barnsley and now lives in Southampton with his partner and children.
At twenty-seven, he was diagnosed with stage IVa mouth cancer despite having no known risk factors. Surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy changed his life, but the treatment itself is only part of what he writes about.
His work is interested in the life around the emergency — family, fear, humour, identity, grief, stubbornness and the things worth carrying forward.
That perspective runs through Dismantled, his essays and his speaking work.
Three parts of the work
DISMANTLED
A memoir about survival, identity and what you build when treatment ends but recovery does not.
EXPLORE FURTHER
SPEAKING & MEDIA
Talks and interviews about mouth cancer, early detection, patient experience and life after treatment.
ISAAC J BURNS
Fantasy and speculative fiction, from family adventures in Dusk Keep to darker worlds still being built.
LATEST WRITING
Before Any of the Rest of It, There Was a Café
A piece about Butler’s Dining Rooms on Brook Hill in Sheffield, family, memory and some of the things that get built into us before we realise they are there.
MEMORY · FAMILY · 15-MINUTE READ
New writing, book news and the work behind it.
Occasional emails from Joe Butler about new essays, Dismantled, speaking and what is being built next.