Disability Futures in the Arts – Winter 2021

This issue includes the second group of works from “Disability Futures in the Arts,” a vibrant project on the disability arts and culture, sponsored by a prestigious grant awarded by the Canada Council for the Arts. As a component of this three-year, multi-project grant, Special Guest Editor, Prof. Kenny Fries, will curate and edit a series of 15 invited essays by disabled artists, to be published in Wordgathering in three sections (five essays, each) and sequences (each winter, over the three-year period). The first cohort’s essays were published in December 2020; the third group of essays will be published during the winter of 2022-23Read more about this groundbreaking initiative with Prof. Fries, in the Syracuse University News story.

We are thrilled and honored to bring into the world the second exemplary five of these 15 essays, accompanied by an introductory essay by Prof. Fries. These five essays are intellectually and emotionally cutting-edge; they are deep, iconoclastic, and engaging. Their “reach” is local, global, and always-bold. Readers are likely to be affected by the brilliant variety of authorial styles as well as by the work’s individual and collective excellence.

Each of the following written works is accompanied by an audio recording. Prof. Meg Day’s essay is also accompanied by a video recording of an American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation of the work–with our thanks to ASL interpreter, Emily Phipps, NIC, and to Prof. Day. As with all other visual content that is published in Wordgathering, image descriptions / descriptive captions are provided wherever images appear within the essays.

Contents include:


“Disability Futures in the Arts” is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts/Conseil des arts du Canada.Logo for the Canada Council for the Arts/onseil des arts du Canada

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Wordgathering is open to work that makes a contribution to disability literature. Writers interested in submitting essays for publication consideration should first send a query to wordgathering@syr.edu describing the proposed piece and how it relates to disability literature. Please submit work only after receiving editorial confirmation regarding submission(s). For more information, please visit our Submission Guidelines.