Aimee Louw - Disabled Voices Anthology

www.rebelmountainpress.com

For all the beautiful weirdos of our community.
Were all welcome here.

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by sb. smith

My first introduction to criplit took place not all that long ago. Back in fall 2017, I chose Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinhas Bodymap in my Introduction to Publishing course to write my first ever book review on. I experienced a too-heavy-for-the-middle-of-a-university-semester catharsis from doing so, and my instructor (hilariously) changed every instance of the word ableism in my assignment to able-ism as if it was a word I had invented. Regardless, I found my own crip experience reflected in those pages and a part of me felt deeply understood for the first time in my life. It was like discovering a new language for everything Id been feeling, experiencing, and wanting to say for years.

In the following semester, I took another publishing course that Rebel Mountain Press (the publisher of this book) visited to present their catalogue of books. They had just released their LGBTQIA+ anthology and had an Indigenous anthology already under their belts. Sitting at the back of class during the presentation, I daydreamed of a Disability anthology and wished for a place I could devour more types of criplit. Although some Disabled anthologies of strictly one genre exist, Id never heard of an anthology of several writing genres as well as art. I thought to myself, Im a good editor. Why cant I make that book? At the end of class, I approached Rebel Mountain Press with my pitch for Disabled Voices Anthology and the rest was history!

The title of this book simply came from a literal explanation of what the book is: voices of Disabled people. I never thought to change it from the working title of Disabled Voices Anthology because the last thing our community needs is more euphemisms or mincing of words. I felt the title needed to be a firm presentation of the books contents and a means to bring its creators Disabled identities to the forefront.

As a result, Ive taken some flack over the title. Ive had a couple of icky emails, but even more intentional mis-namings or screwed-up noses in conversation with people. Ive had everyone from friends, family, and colleagues forget and seem confused or shocked when I mention the book Im working on. Id be lying if I said all feedback has been negative, but the subtle ableism (that I, as a Disabled person, am highly-attuned to) around the reception to this book in my personal and working circles has been discouraging, to say the least. Thankfully, I found the group of writers and artists I worked with to put this together to be incredibly supportive, gracious, patient, and generous throughout this process. So many kind words were offered from several of the authors during the editing process, all at times they didnt know I needed them most. The ceaseless enthusiasm and excitement from others in the Disabled community has been energizing in moments of burnout. On top of that, the writing and art contributions offered by some of my favourite crip writers and heroes is beyond my wildest dreams.

Even more, the titleour titleis important because it means direct visibility for Disabled writers and artists. It means we are putting ourselves and our work into the world, intentionally and unapologetically. We are intending for our voices to be heard, to be recognized. For so long, work by Disabled people has been undervalued in literary scenes and the art world. Its been ignored or invalidated and I, for one, am sick of that. Im tired of fighting for my work to be appreciated half as much as my abled peers, tired of fighting for an ounce of recognition within my academic and working circles. I hate seeing the brilliant work from my friends and others in our community not getting the accolades they so deserve. Im sure many Disabled creators feel the same.