Dear Readers,
For this special feature, we were honoured to give a home to work by writers who are disabled, d/Deaf, neurodivergent, and/or experience chronic pain.
While we reject a singular image of disability and artwork in this community, much of the work in this issue pushes at the borders of writing, destabilizing accepted generic notions. As writers who are often ignored by the cultural status quo, who are narrowed and boxed in as a monolith, these pieces attest to our submitters’ refusal to act within those boundaries, instead carving an often experimental path into voicing themselves.
The pandemic has shown us that the accommodations disabled writers have long advocated for in order to produce their best work—like virtual attendance at readings,— are possible so long as they benefit the abled. But accessibility can’t be a temporary phenomenon.
We need to keep building opportunities into the fabric of our writing communities and publications. There shouldn’t need to be an onus on disabled writers to create space for themselves, and we hope that writing communities can grow into more inclusive spaces.
We hope you enjoy the incredible work featured in this issue, and can look with intention to a hopeful future, where writing communities embrace the affinity that exists between radical poetics and disabled representation.
Sincerely,
The Editors of the Scores