#thegeacademy

Tonight (1930 GMT) I will be hosting our ‪#‎GEAQA‬ with guest Athena Stevens. Athena is an actress, writer, entrepreneur and activist who works to promote disability in the arts. She has a play. ‘Schism’ coming out at the Finborough in April, has had plays on in Edinburgh and the West End. Please do come to the event at 19.30 tomorrow, we’d love to hear your take on diversity and disability in literature. You can find out more about Athena, and see her TEDx Talk on her site below.

We’ll be talking about‪ #‎DisabilityInKidsLit‬

I really recommend thinking about this subject in advance, we’ll raise a few questions and challenges, and encourage you to think about the breadth and type of coverage that people with disability get in Childrens’ Literature.

If you’re thinking of including differently-abled characters in your writing, or just want to discuss as part of the wider subject of diversity, we look forward to your questions/comments.

I’d also like to recommend the Documentary that Athena made called ‘Day of Small things’. Where she interviews a mountain of amazing people on 'the definition of achievement’ (Designer Paul Smith, Critic Giles Coren, Writer Ben Okri; as an example with many more interviews on her website).