WordgatheringA Journal of Disability Poetry and Literature |
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Interviews and Essays in this IssueOn March 30-31 the University of Pennsylvania will be hosting "Disability Studies: A History" Wordgathering, a conference whose importance lies in being the first ever conference to look at how disability studies has developed as an area of study within academic institutions. In this issue, Wordgathering interviews Clare Mullaney, one of the major architects of the conference. The second interview in the current issue is with Christorpher Jon Heuer, a professor at Gallaudet University, poet, and fiction writer. This issue of Wordgathering also contains four essays. The first, in the tradition of literary disability essays that take a look at well-known literature from a disabilities perspective, comes from Grace Lapointe who looks into the role of disability in David Foster Wallace's opus, Infinite Jest. The remaining three essays come from personal experience. Excerpted from a larger work is Matt Ramsey's "Word Palleting" describing a technique that Ramsey developed for writing poetry with learning disabled students after his own experience with disability. Sean Mahoney describes the vicissitudes of dealing with a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis and the social reactions that attend it. In a somewhat similar vein, Ariana Aboulafia offers her take on an all too often experience, the misdiagnosis of a medical condition that almost resulted in her death.
In addition to these three essays, the music section of this issue offers Amy Robinson's essay on what it is like to be a one-handed violin player. Wordgathering invites the submissions of literary essays, particularly those that help establish disability literature as a field of study. Essays on the work of other writers with disabilities are especially desireable. In addition, the journal is always seeking new work of fiction by writers with disabilities. We also accept disability-related fiction by writers without disabilities that counters stereotypes of disability. Queries can be addressed to comments@wordgathering.com. Return to Top |
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