The Spoonie Authors Network (SpAN) is a place where writers who are disabled, d/Deaf, hard-of-hearing, Blind, visually impaired, neurodivergent, and/or who manage chronic conditions and/or mental illness can share their journeys. Past and current contributors to this blog have written about their triumphs and trials, and how they use their creativity as an outlet.

If you’d like to be interviewed for the Spoonie Authors Podcast, refer to this post for more information!

Submission guidelines

What are we looking for?

1. Writers (ages 18 and older) who have the own-voice experience of managing disabilities and/or chronic conditions that impact the routine of their daily lives. This is not limited to “visible” disabilities, such as mobility impairment, but also includes “invisible” disabilities and/or conditions, such as mental illness, chronic pain, chronic fatigue, and neurodivergence. (Obviously, this is not a comprehensive list and we want to be a welcoming place for our fellow Spoonies, so please introduce yourself to us!) We will consider SpAN entries from bloggers (who maintain a blog regularly), indie authors, traditionally published authors, and not-yet published authors.
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2. Articles (approximately 800-1000 words, in English) about topics such as the challenges you face as a writer, ways you cope, and how you feel about Spoonie representation. Hearing about your stories is often an encouragement to us, even if the topic is heavy. Someone will probably say, “Hey, I go through that, too!” when you put yourself out there. It’s okay if your life isn’t sunshine and rainbows, but you can include super happy stories, too! We have all the emotions here at the SpAN.
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3. Your other words! We would like to promote links to your written works, blogs, and websites.  

We’re a volunteer-run community initiative!

For now, the Spoonie Authors Network is currently run by volunteers, and we do not have funding to pay our contributors. (We hope this changes one day and are so grateful to the writers who have contributed their time.) In the meantime, we do promote links to books and websites in the author bios and interviews, and on the Get books and more! page.

Submission form

Use the following form to submit your article. We will evaluate it for quality of writing and suitability for the SpAN. While our humble SpAN editor would love to accept every article, sometimes we have to decline.

If you are accepted, you will get an invitation to join the SpAN as a contributing author! Your article will be edited for grammar and flow, and then we shall publish it. If you do not have a featured image for the blog (aside from your blog photo), we will provide one.

We have the right to reject content that is abusive, hateful, offensive, and just plain nasty. Let’s play nice, folks.

Thanks for considering submitting to the SpAN! In the meantime, why not peruse some of our articles? Maybe even click a link to buy a book or check out a website from our contributors? And don’t forget our to check out our podcast (transcripts are on this website)! We appreciate you stopping by!