SMA News Forums Forums Awareness and Advocacy Disability in Media Looking for Books By Disabled Writers

  • tracy-odell

    Member
    May 8, 2020 at 8:46 am

    I have a few:

    <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>Too Late to Die Young: Nearly true tales from a life</span> by Harriet McBryde Johnson, is her memoirs from growing up with SMA in the US. Available from Amazon.

    <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist</span>, by Judith Huemann with Kristen Joiner, Hueman grew up with polio in the US. Available from Amazon or Kindle

    <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>Find Another Dream</span> by Maysoon Zayid, is her memoirs from growing up with cerebral palsy in the US. Available from Amazon.

    <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>It’s Not What It Looks Like</span>, by Molly Burke is her memoirs from growing up with retinitis pigmentosa, a form of blindness.

    <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>The Pretty One</span> by Keah Brown, who grew up with cerebral palsy.

    <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>Laughing at My Nightmare</span> by Shane Burcaw, who has SMA. Other titles by Burcaw: <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>Strangers Assume My Girlfriend Is My Nurse</span> and <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>Not So Different: What You Really Want to Ask About Having a Disability</span>

    <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>Falling for Myself</span> by Dorothy Ellen Palmer who grew up with two very different and very tiny feet.

    <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>Reading Willing and Disabled</span> by Norman Kunc, available from Amazon. Also his newer book, <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>Being Realistic isn’t Realistic</span>

    <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>From Behind the Piano</span> and <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>What’s Really Worth Doing and How to Do It</span> by Judith Snow who grew up with SMA. Book is available from inclusion Press https://inclusion.com/product/from-behind-the-piano-the-building-of-judith-snows-unique-circle-of-friends-and-whats-really-worth-doing-and-how-to-do-it-a-book-for-people-who-love-someone-labeled-disabled-now-in-1-bo/

    <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space</span> by Amanda Leduc examines how disability is treated in fairy tales. Read about Disfigured in the Quill & Quire. https://quillandquire.com/authors/amanda-leducs-disability-justice-critique-of-fairy-tales-speaks-to-our-own-ableist-society/

    YA book covers featuring disabled teens hitting shelves this year. Books are about disability but not necessarily written by people with disabilities https://bookriot.com/2020/01/13/disability-representation-on-ya-book-covers/

    <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>Voice: Adam Pottle on Writing with Deafness</span> by Adam Pottle. There are millions of us, he says, and we have something important to say. You can read the review of Adam Pottle’s Voice  https://www.stratfordbeaconherald.com/entertainment/books/book-reviews-adam-pottle-paul-hanley-robert-bringhurst-and-jan-zwicky/wcm/9e2bd316-b7a9-47ef-8916-18690b99e9cb or buy Voice: Adam Pottle on Writing with Deafness on Amazon https://www.amazon.ca/Voice-Adam-Pottle-Writing-Deafness/dp/0889775931

     

  • holly-dillon

    Member
    May 8, 2020 at 12:07 pm

    This Is Not A love Scene by S.C. Megale both the author and the main character have SMA

    Accidents of Nature, which takes place at a disabled summer camp by Harriet McBryde Johnson, a notable disability rights activist

    Good King Bad Kings by Susan Nussbaum, another activist, about a nursing home for disabled kids (kinda dark)

  • holly-dillon

    Member
    May 8, 2020 at 7:18 pm

    sorry forget one
    The Girl From Aleppo, its a memoir from Nujeen Mustafa, a girl with cerebral palsy, who fled Syrian war in a wheelchair

    bonus: Just The Way You Arm by Alison M Boot, I have not read it yet. It seems to be a fantasy romance. I don’t know if its good or not.

  • patrick-lenihan

    Member
    May 8, 2020 at 9:28 pm

    Christy Brown’s “Down All The Days” and “My Left Foot”

    Ben Mattlin’s “Miracle Boy Grows Up” and “In Sickness and in Health”

  • kevin-schaefer

    Member
    May 10, 2020 at 5:18 pm

    I’ve read both of Mattlin’s books. They’re great.

  • brianna-albers

    Member
    May 11, 2020 at 12:38 pm

    Thanks, all! These are great suggestions.

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