#criplit

"No escape for us. Just diving into the cracks, descending amidst the realities of cleaving to that which maximises life. Nothing to be saved, nothing to be fixed, just embracing necessity. Constantly alert and responding to environments that were never made for us; tracking the minute shifts, the ebbs and flows, the precipitous crevasses and thrumming near-burnouts  of our energy levels. The way flesh meets not-flesh and becomes reconfigured, where strategising over food and drink intake becomes an absolute requirement when we explore a new place; rationing fluids if there’s no bathroom, no place to change catheter or clothes. Scouting the potential rest-spaces as if it were a military exercise, like an expedition to the desert, the warming but still extreme North Pole. All amidst a major city, a human hive. Roads and pathways have cambers and cracks unseen and unfelt by those flowing through the concrete canals on upright feet. The so-called Anthropocene looks different down here, closer to the curvature of the Earth. Disabled people know what it is to be owned by earth, by a slope, by a lip, a root, a threshold, by wet grass. The golden sands of summer’s relief grasp wheels, catch canes, bog them down. It’s enough to make us realise we are not on land, but in land, embedded and entangled. What if, then, the human project is one of insulation?"

Wrote this in 2023 for a fairly well known international art-fashion mag. They didn't end up using it.

There’s a new disabled literature database in town, y’all!

[image description: black background with white text. Coming August 15th. Poems about maladies, medicine, and mortality. Presented by Swimming with Elephants Publications. A Duet of Dying by Shanna Alden and Erin Schick. Black and white MRI photo of femurs and thighs.]

@chaoticaggro and I co-wrote a book of poems about illness, trauma, and death that’s out next month and available for pre-orders now.

[Description: a blue and purple ombre book has title in purple that reads When The Chant Comes. Above, a yellow black and white banner says BOOKRIOT.] #whenthechantcomes Wednesday: My book was featured on @bookriot’s “100 MUST-READ BOOKS BY #QUEER AUTHORS.” Honored to be listed among memorable and sharp writers of all genres. 👏🏽✨🌊

Upcoming #CripLit Twitter Chat 

Publishing Online: “Crips in Space” Special Issue

May 11, 2017 4pm Pacific/7pm Eastern