Welcome to Disability (a House with Infinite Rooms)
Activism and Advocacy / Connecting / Getting support / Spoonie Challenges

Welcome to Disability (a House with Infinite Rooms)

Hi there. You’re new here. You and maybe one hundred forty-one million, five hundred thousand others. That’s a guess. An imperfect one, because the data is young and ever-changing and because lots of folks lived in this house before a brand-new Goldilocks broke in and started judging our food and lodgings. Too metaphorical? Probably. Let … Continue reading

Paddling, with a belt on
ankylosing spondylitis / Spoonie Challenges / Writing journey

Paddling, with a belt on

Hey, nice to meet you. I’m Michelle. I’m a novelist, a radio professional, and a disabled person. I have ankylosing spondylitis, an immune-mediated auto-inflammatory disease that’s trying to destroy my hips, seize my rib cage, and turn my spine into one lone bone — oh, and chew on the rest of my joints for snacks. … Continue reading

Managing Spoons One Year Later: Christina Robins
Managing Spoons One Year Later

Managing Spoons One Year Later: Christina Robins

Editor’s note: The last twelve months (and counting) of living during a global pandemic has had an affect on us Spoonies, so I thought I would do a six-week series, asking some of our contributing authors the same questions about how they are managing spoons, one year later. This week’s featured author: Christina Robins SpAN … Continue reading

The Power of Creativity and the Disabled Writing Community
Activism and Advocacy / Anxiety / chronic fatigue / chronic pain / cons / Fibromyalgia / internalized ableism / Living fully

The Power of Creativity and the Disabled Writing Community

I spent 2014 in an acute state of fear. Yeah, I know that seems hyperbolic, but I was quite terrified. The chronic pain I had been experiencing from the neuropathy of fibromyalgia had levelled up to a state where it felt like someone had injected several areas of my body with burning hot, vibrating curling … Continue reading

Internalized Ableism: A New SpAN Series
internalized ableism

Internalized Ableism: A New SpAN Series

I am delighted to announce that we’ll have a new series starting on February 9, 2020 called internalized abelism. Several of our past contributors (and some new ones) will share with us how they’ve wrestled with their own ableism—which they might have also used against themselves—and how these attitudes have affected their lives. It’s really … Continue reading

Charity™ and Disabled Futurity
Anthology / Books/Anthologies / Crafting characters / Represention

Charity™ and Disabled Futurity

Editor’s note: I invited Derek Newman-Stille to share with us their own experience with writing fiction, as some people might only know them as a champion in elevating speculative fiction authors and/or disabled voices. Their short story, Charity™, is the grand finale of the Nothing Without Us anthology. Most of my writing about disability has … Continue reading

Even friendly-neighbourhood Spoonie editors experience burnout.
Autism / Fibromyalgia / Spoonie Challenges

Even friendly-neighbourhood Spoonie editors experience burnout.

I love the Spoonie Authors Network. It’s been a blessing since its inception and continues to inspire (in a healthy way) wonderful things. The SpAN allowed me to gather up people who experience disability and chronic conditions in various ways. Sometimes it allowed the creatives to come to terms with the fact that they are … Continue reading