Esteemed Readers:
The Wordgathering team continues to receive numerous requests for book reviews. We now gratefully and proudly share with you our third “book reviews and review essays special supplement.” Designated Volume 19, Issue 2s (“s” for “supplement”), aka Issue 70b, the Spring 2026 special supplement includes a whopping 19 book reviews. (Yes, it is now early July, and we faced some Crip Time exigencies. Let’s move on. Huzzah.)
The Spring 2026 special supplement’s book reviews were written by Stacy Cervenka, Kate Champlin, Angele Ellis (Angele’s review is reprinted with permission), Ona Gritz, Linda Henderson, Rebecca Miles Henson, Michael Northen, A. C. Riffer, Lynne Shapiro, Phil Smith, Chanika Svetvilas, and Rachael Zubal-Ruggieri.
Incredibly, our forthcoming Summer 2026 issue will mark the 20th anniversary of Wordgathering. That full-length issue will also include a wide variety of book reviews, as will our Winter 2026-2027 issue. We are currently scheduling book reviews into 2027 and 2028, as there is a prodigious plethora of great books to celebrate, honor, and address! In fact, we have received so many requests, we are now encouraging authors and publishers to identify potential reviewers with whom we can collaborate. And, unsurprisingly, we are already planning a Spring 2027 special supplement.
If you would like to join our book reviewers’ team, please write to me at wordgathering@syr.edu. Unfortunately, at the present time, we do not have funds to compensate any of our contributors—including reviewers. (As I like to quip, we can offer you modest fame.)
Please also read and visit our most recent, complete issue (Winter 2025-2026). We encourage you to read our Spring 2025 and Spring 2024 special supplements, as well.
This Spring 2026 special supplement is dedicated—with love, gratitude, and sadness—to the memories of Marjane Satrapi and Richard K. Scotch. You can read Rachael Zubal-Ruggieri’s review of Family and Disability Activism: Beyond Allies and Obstacles (edited by Pamela Block, Allison C. Carey, and Richard K. Scotch) in this supplement.
As we approach our 20th anniversary, we are very pleased to continue to engage on a global scale. We are honored and pleased to have formed a partnership with both The Global Alliance for Disability in Media and Entertainment (GADIM) and The Global Disability News Network (TGDNN). Thanks to our friends, Beth Haller, Jenny Taylor, and team, for this opportunity and engagement. Our partnerships “dropdown” menu includes the following information, with thanks, again, to Beth, Jenny, and comrades:
The Global Alliance for Disability in Media and Entertainment (GADIM) was created to advocate for the authentic representation of people with disabilities in mass media. GADIM’s mission is informed by Article 8 (Awareness-raising) of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), ensuring disabled voices are actively included in storytelling and media production. GADIM invites all media organizations and industry participants – news, entertainment, advertising, etc. – to increase the representation and authentic portrayal of people with disabilities in all areas. GADIM recently launched The Global Disability News Network, which provides global, fully accessible disability news primarily created by disabled people; builds a worldwide network of disability-focused news platforms; produces original, impactful journalism; and promotes accurate, ethical, and inclusive coverage of disability topics across the globe. We are currently partnering with numerous national disability news organizations, spanning more than six countries and five continents. Our global reach includes partnerships with the Centre for Disability and Inclusion Africa, Crip Life in the UK, Die Neue Norm in Germany, the Disabled Journalist Association (DJA) in the US, Inclusive News in Brazil, Reframing Disability in India, and more.
Wishing you meaningful reading—about three weeks in advance of the 36th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), here in “the States” and beyond.
—Diane R. Wiener, Editor-in-Chief
The Spring 2026 special supplement includes the following book reviews, focused on a plethora of exemplary works in poetry, fiction, essays, nonfiction, and more:
- Danielle Bainbridge, Dandelion: A Memoir in Essays
- Pamela Block, Allison C. Carey, and Richard K. Scotch (eds.), Family and Disability Activism: Beyond Allies and Obstacles
- Chrys Buckley, Invisible Violets: A Mixtape in Lyric Essays
- Amanda Cachia, Hospital Aesthetics: Disability, Medicine, Activism
- Anne-Lyse Chabert, Beyond Disability: A Matter of Listening [Translation of Vivre son Destin, Vivre sa Pensée]
- Eli Clare, Unfurl: Survivals, Sorrows, and Dreaming
- Adam Cureton, Respecting Disability: Attitudes, Ideals, and Relationships
- Diane Debrovner and Stacy Cervenka, Roxie in Color
- Ona Gritz, If You Find This Letter
- Bruce Hunter, In the Bear’s House
- Jason Irwin, These Fragments I Have Shored: A Memoir
- Sona Kazemi, Disabling Relations: Wounded Bodyminds and Transnational Praxis
- Gaelynn Lea, It Wasn’t Meant to Be Perfect: A Memoir
- Laura Mauldin, In Sickness and in Health: Love Stories from the Front Lines of America’s Caregiving Crisis
- Kobus Moolman, Fall Risk
- Gregory Smith, Stronger Than Bone: An Unbreakable Life with Brittle Bones
- Steffi Tad-y, Notes from the Ward
- Ann E. Wallace, Keeping Room
- Rua M. Williams, Disabling Intelligences: Legacies of Eugenics and How We are Wrong about AI
As Wordgathering has grown, the number of requests that we receive for book reviews has likewise grown. Writers who would like to review books for or have books reviewed by Wordgathering should send queries to wordgathering@syr.edu. Please refer to our Submission Guidelines for more information.
If you would like to become a potentially “frequent flyer” book reviewer for Wordgathering, thereby joining our (of course, accessible) reviewers’ “pool,” please reach out to us at wordgathering@syr.edu with a short summary of your areas of interest and expertise, a short statement of how you understand yourself and your writing to be in alignment with the journal’s goals, and a short third-person bio, and we will be in touch with you as soon as possible. Thank you in advance for your interest and commitment.
Underlined content throughout Wordgathering is hyperlinked (each underlined element is a clickable link), leading to further aspects of the content shared. Any questions about accessibility can be addressed by emailing us at: wordgathering@syr.edu.
Please note that the opinions and perspectives shared by our contributors (in their published work or elsewhere) do not necessarily align with or reflect the opinions and perspectives held by the members of the journal’s editorial and administrative team.