Excellence in Disability Literature
By David-Elijah Nahmod
The children’s book Reese Has a Halloween Secret, written by Jo Meserve Mach and Vera Lynne Stroup-Rentier, with photographs by Mary Birdsell, is short and sweet — clocking in at just forty pages. The book tells the true story of Reese, a young boy with a disability who, with the help of his loving dad, creates a Halloween costume that includes his wheelchair. Continue reading “Children With Disabilities Can Celebrate Halloween Too”
By David-Elijah Nahmod
Eight books have been chosen to be honored in the 2022 Schneider Family Book Awards — a prize that acknowledges the artistic expression of disability by authors or illustrators who created their work for child or adolescent readers. The awards are administered by the American Librarian Association, and were announced on January 24, 2022, during the association’s LibLearnX, which was held virtually from January 21-24. Continue reading “8 Award-winning Disability Children’s and YA Books to Read in 2022”
By Christi Furnas
I’m an artist living with schizophrenia. I’ve been open about my illness since it began. I’ve painted my hallucinations, spoken on panels and with the press. Since I gravitate to drawing my experiences, the progression to creating a graphic novel felt natural to me. Still, for many writers with disabilities, the process of adding illustrations to prose could feel like a daunting task. While putting a graphic novel together takes time and dedication, with a little planning, it can be done. Here are a few tips to consider if you are contemplating this form of storytelling. Continue reading “8 Tips to Writing a Disability Graphic Novel”
By Stephanie Duesing
I didn’t know my son Sebastian until he was 15. That was the year we had our first real Mother’s Day celebration. We lived in the same house together for 15 years, so don’t misunderstand. I gave birth to him. I changed his diapers and taught him to ride a bicycle.
I was a stay-at-home mom, and he was my only child, but I didn’t know him. We spent hours together every day playing and doing crafts together. He painted the most extraordinary pictures, even as a toddler. His existence filled my imagination from the moment that I looked at the faint blue positive mark on the pregnancy test, but I still didn’t know him until he was a sophomore in high school. Continue reading “My Son Has an Invisible Disability. On Mother’s Day, I Celebrate Seeing Him.”
By Belo Miguel Cipriani
Not quite seeing or hearing artist and author Terry Galloway ambled through early childhood with mixed emotions. On one end, she was arrogant. In fact, she would even describe herself as “a little shit,” yet she also sought physical approval from the people around her. Continue reading “An Interview with Mean Little deaf Queer Author Terry Galloway”
By Belo Miguel Cipriani
Some books become classics because they bring to the forefront new ideas, while others are imprinted in our consciousness because they shine light on a little known world.
Resistance and Hope: Essays by Disabled People, edited by Alice Wong, is one of those rare anthologies that both highlights new ways of examining disability, as well as raises the profile of the disability community. Wong, a San Francisco-based disability rights activist and journalist, has gathered 16 essays from some of the leading voices in disability advocacy, to shed some light onto disability issues in the Trump era. Continue reading “Book Review: Resistance and Hope, Edited by Alice Wong”
By Belo Miguel Cipriani
On a chilly November afternoon in 2008, I tapped my white cane down Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley, California and entered Pegasus Books. At that time, I had only been blind for a year, and often found a lot of my questions about disability answered by disability stories.
A charismatic woman greeted me, and I explained I was looking for books written by people with disabilities. “You want Crip Lit,” she said, helping me walk to another section of the store. Continue reading “Disability Literature: The Rise of D Lit in Publishing”
Our debut title, Firsts: Coming of Age Stories by People with Disabilities, was released in October 2018.