Divergent Writers

Christie Collins is Lecturer of English at Mississippi State University, USA. A neuro-divergent and chronically ill writer, she has been published in Stirring, Phantom Drift, and Kenyon Review Online among other periodicals. Her chapbook, Along the Diminishing Stretch of Memory, was published in 2014 and her collection of poems, The Art of Coming Undone, was published in 2023.Saul Lemerond is Assistant Professor of English at Hanover College, USA. He is a dyslexic writer who lives in Madison, Indiana where he teaches American Literature and Creative Writing. His fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared in Bourbon Penn, Gigantic Sequins, Moon City Review, The Journal of Creative Writing Studies, and elsewhere. He is author of Digital Voices (Bloomsbury, 2023).

Divergent Writers is a welcome acknowledgement that 1 in 4 of us will become disabled for at least 3 months before we retire and that about twenty percent of us are neurodivergent. This book tells the important truth: we’re not all the same as each other, we’re each not the same as we were a few years ago, and that variety and variability is exactly what makes creative writing and the literature we produce exciting, relevant, and worthwhile for humanity. This anthology is an rousing breakthrough for a field that—thankfully—keeps evolving.

• Part One: The Writer’s Journey: Late Diagnosis, Recovery, & Post-Diagnosis/Post-Recovery Observations on Writing & Teaching1. Aphasia as Form & Discontent: Adaptations of a Post-Stroke Poet and Teacher, Aidan Coleman2. A Martian Poetic Tendency: What I Learned about Writing and Teaching After My Autism Diagnosis, Cath Nichols3. Why Write?: Reframing Personal Creative Writing Practice in the Light of Changing Diagnoses, Oz Hardwick4. “Me Here—You There:” Writing Contrast without a Self, K. Iver5. Theory of Whose Mind?: A Very Late-Diagnosed Autistic Writer Claps Back, Julia Lee Barclay-MortonPart Two: Views from the Inside: Writers Confronting Stigma, Exploitation, & Ableism6. There is a Charge for the Eyeing of My Scars: Writing the Neurodivergent, Disabled Body for a Dominant Audience, Grace Quantock7. When Methods Fail: A View from the Perspective of a Dyslexic Writer, Saul Lemerond8. The Breath of the Bird: My Writing Life with Bipolar Disorder, Celeste Maria Schueler9. The Gallery Effect: The Visibly Disabled Writer in the Real World, Tyler Darnell10. What do You Really Want to Say: A Creative Writing MA Student’s Experience with Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD), Beth ReesPart Three: Dismantling the Traditional Writing Workshop: Interventions, Reckonings, & Inclusive Alternatives10. Do Away with Writing Workshops: An Anti-Ableist Treatise, Said Shaiye11. Perfection of the (Care) Work: A Traditional MFA Workshop Experience: vs. A Disability-Centric Workshop Experience, Shane Neilson12. Poem Brut: What the Writing Workshop Can Learn from the Outside World, Julia Rose Lewis13. Spinning Words: Poetry Creation by Autistic People from Brazil, Gustavo Henrique RückertPart Four: Ableism in Higher Education, Writing Programs, & Academia: Insights, Pedagogy, & Visibility14. “Reduced to Depraved Animals”: The Need for Faculty and Administrators to Consider Disabled, Neurodivergent, and Chronically Ill Students in Creative Writing Programs, Christie Collins15. Teaching Creative Writing to Neurodivergent Students: A Fairly Friendly FAQ, Leigh Camacho Rourks16. The Power of Words: Neurodiversity, Authenticity, and Inclusion in the Creative Writing Classroom, Rachel Carney17. Embodiment and the Body in Pain: Observations from a Poet in Academia, Miranda L. Barnes18. Barriers to Neurodiversity: Questioning Practice in & Beyond the Classroom, Audrey T. Heffers