This issue includes five book reviews about five very different kinds of books in the CripLit world. Allison C. Carey, Pamela Block, and Richard K. Scotch’s Allies and Obstacles: Disability Activism and Parents of Children with Disabilities (reviewed by Rachael Zubal-Ruggieri) offers readers a strong introduction to at times contested issues—namely, how disabled children fare in the world, and how parents’ representations, roles, and advocacy influence and impact decision-making, social policy, access, and ethics. Johanna Hedva’s Minerva the Miscarriage of the Brain (reviewed by PF Anderson) is a definition-defying bricolage of performance art, poetry, and prose, with provocative illustrations by Isabelle Albuquerque, as well as a selection of the author’s photographs. (All visual images are accompanied by extensive textual descriptions.) Artist Riva Lehrer’s elaborate memoir, Golem Girl (reviewed by Michael Northen), engages many themes, including personal, cross-temporal recollections of the disability arts movement. Raymond Luczak’s bold, new collection of short stories about Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, COMPASSION, MICHIGAN: The Ironwood Stories, and sb. smith’s multi-genre, edited volume, Disabled Voices Anthology (both reviewed by Diane R. Wiener), provide readers with groundbreaking, thoughtful work.
- Allison C. Carey, Pamela Block, and Richard K. Scotch, Allies and Obstacles: Disability Activism and Parents of Children with Disabilities
- Johanna Hedva, Minerva the Miscarriage of the Brain
- Riva Lehrer, Golem Girl: A Memoir
- Raymond Luczak, COMPASSION, MICHIGAN: The Ironwood Stories
- sb. smith, Disabled Voices Anthology
Editor’s Note: The interview with Rachael Zubal-Ruggieri in this issue of Wordgathering includes a discussion of Uncanny Bodies: Superhero Comics and Disability, edited by Scott T. Smith and José Alaniz (Penn State University Press, 2020).
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