Sunday, July 26, 2020

Ten Books of Disability Fiction You Should Read



With the restrictions brought on by the ongoing covid-19 pandemic, many people are finding themselves reading more than ever before.  As the editor of Wordgathering for thirteen years, I have had the opportunity to read and review a great many books.  While there are many wonderful books that I could recommend, I would like to offer the following list.  All of the following are novels or short story collections either about disability or by writers who identify as disabled.  They are by no means the only ones that I could recommend but I believe that the diversity of the list speaks for itself. 

For each of the books I have provided a brief description.  All of the books, with one exception, have been reviewed in Wordgathering, so links to those reviews are provided to give anyone interested a more thorough preview of the book.  With brick and mortar stores closed, this is a great opportunity to support writer with disabilities – who can certainly use it in these times. Besides, they are all great reads.

Shahd Alshammari – Notes on the Flesh
Faraxa Publishing, 2018
This biomythography explores the impact of disability on women in Islamic culture by following a young Palestinian Kuwaiti woman who is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis – its  impact on her family, her friendships and her prospects for the future.

Ann Finger – A Woman in Bed
Cinco Puntos Press, 2018
From  noted memoirist and fiction writer Ann Finger, this novel almost transcends genre.  Situated in Paris during World War II, it follows the effects of Parkinson’s on a woman who finds herself caught up in the French resistance.  Fingers ability at wordplay, satire and descriptions of the body are on full display.

Suzanne Kamata – Gadget Girl
Gemma Press, 2013
Aiko is a teenager with a Japanese father and an American mother. She also has cerebral palsy. When her artist mother is pulled to Paris for work, Aiko goes along trying to pursue her own dream of being a manga artist and accompanying setbacks along the way.

Maya Augelli – Johanna’s Secrets
Book Baby, (2019)
An aspiring writer moves to New England to work on her first novel  and try to jumpstart her life. She discovers quickly that the house she had rented holds secrets to an unsolved local crime.  In the course of digging for clues, she also begins to regain faith in herself.

Dora Raymaker – Hoshi and the Red City Circuit
Argawarga Press, 2018
The events in this  multi-layered cyperpunk mystery novel are viewed through the eyes of an autistic protagonist call upon to solve a landscape in which those with autism are essential to the maintenance of the cities information info structure while being reviled by its inhabitants.  

J. L. Powers – This Thing Called the Future
Cinco Puntos Press, 2011
Khosi is a fourteen year-old girl who lives with her family in a destitute town on the edge of Pietermartizburg, South Africa.  When her mother is diagnosed with AIDS she is called upon to abandon her dreams of attending medical school to become a traditional healer, confronting  a range of dangers that surround her.

Liesl  Jobson – Ride the Tortoise
Jacana Media, 2013
In a series of complex and powerfully written short stories Jobson explores women’s mental health and the attempts of the female protagonists to  cope amidst the sexual  bias and racial complexities of South Africa.

Nicola Griffith – Hild
Farar, Strauss and Giroux, 2013
A tour-de-force of historical fiction writing, Hild imagines the life of St. Hilda as the seer to a tribal king in ninth century Britain.  Griffith’s mastery of the language use of the time as well as details of the customs and physical environment is mesmerizing. 

Sheila Black, Annabelle Hayse, Michael Northen – The Right Way to Be Crippled and Naked
Cinco Puntos Press, 2018
A first of its kind, this anthology introduces readers to the diverse field of disability short fiction by gathering together some of its best fiction both by established writers and new voices.  The wide range of form and subject matter are on full display.

Beacon House Teen Authors – The Day Tajon Got Shot
Shout Mouth Press, 2017
Perhaps even more relevant now than when it was written, Tajon views the shooting of a black teenager through the eyes of a variety of observers.  Co-written by teenage writers at Beacon House in Washington, D.C. it will engage both teenage readers and adult – and provoke some important discussions.

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