Diverse literature is growing in popularity, but not many books authentically represent the disability experience. Either the characters are bathed in stereotypes or the disability is erased by way of a cure or a miracle. This isn’t an exhaustive list, but here is a selection of books written by disabled people, for disabled people. What makes these volumes unique is that the main characters have a disability and each of the books features a wide character arc. The disabled finally get to tell our stories.
If you’ve never read the disability section of The New York Times, this is a great, packaged introduction to the column. It could also be a complementary bound publication for offline reading. Sixty-one essays are organized into topics of justice, belonging, working, navigating, coping, love, family and joy. Essayists have physical, motor, sensory and cognitive disabilities.
“Firsts” is a 2019 Readers’ Favorite gold medal winner in the nonfiction-anthology genre. Doing anything for the first time has a profound impact. Eleven authors write about their first time experiencing “firsts,” which could be anything from raising a hearing child as a deaf parent to navigating the complexities of a caregiver who isn’t a family member. What makes this anthology stand out is the different voices presented. Each writer has a distinctive writing voice that makes it easy to like another story, even if you didn’t care for the previous one.
I’m a sucker for fiction, especially speculative and realistic fiction featuring stories where disabled people are the heroes of their own story. “Nothing Without Us” is a multi-genre, own-voices anthology where the lead characters identify as disabled, deaf, neurodiverse, spoonie or managing mental illness. There’s something for everyone in these twenty-two stories, which range the gamut from satirical to thrilling and suspenseful. The anthology has a deep contributor pool, which spreads out the writing styles. The stories are placed so you won’t get shocked because you’re suddenly jumping jarringly to a very different genre.
This anthology is pure fun. Not only does it break up all the white characters with a few survivors of color, it was great fun watching the end of the world through so many disabilities. “Defying Doomsday” is an anthology of apocalypse fiction featuring disabled and chronically ill protagonists, proving it’s not always the “fittest” who survive—it’s the most tenacious, stubborn, enduring and innovative characters who have the best chance of adapting when everything is lost. There were a lot of good stories in here that had me hooked from the first sentence. A deaf scavenger. A fellow blind person who’s just trying to survive but does everything wrong without giving up. There’s a lot here, mixed in with a lot of different genres and writing styles. Even if you don’t like science fiction, there’s a story in here for everyone.
Just Another Obstacle: A Review of "The Fell" British author Sarah Moss has written another quiet yet deeply moving short novel that takes place during the pandemic over the course of about twenty-four hours.
No Names: A Review of "Mrs. S" by K. Patrick A coming-of-age story about an outsider Aussie, an outsider lesbian, transported in her early twenties to the confining hothouse world of a girls’ boarding school in England, with its claustrophobic atmosphere of rules and restrictions, informed by embarrassing, time-bound traditions, heightened by rural isolation.
Tenacity Required: A Review of "My Monticello" In Jocelyn Nicole Johnson’s bold collection of fiction, the author explores the vulnerability of Black Americans and the tenacity required to live in this country.
