About the Book
In Between Spaces, Stillhouse Press's first ever anthology, centers the experiences of thirty-three disabled poets, short-story writers, and essayists
as they navigate the physical and emotional complexities of disability, chronic illness, neurodivergence, and mental illness. Compiled by an editorial team of disabled writers, this timely collection of often-overlooked voices celebrates joy, freedom, and the power of agency, while at the same time confronting and challenging the stigmas and barriers, visible and invisible, that too often come to define life with a disability.
"Stories of disability are too few and too often told by non-disabled writers, but this collection's value goes far beyond representation. The wise, funny, heartbreaking, and joyful work in these pages can show any reader, disabled or not, how to navigate an unpredictable world."
-James Tate Hill, author of Blind Man's Bluff
"Nobody is ever out of the woods. Life is all about the woods," Teresa Milbrodt explains in "Cyclops Notes," her nonfiction selection in this remarkable anthology of poetry and prose by thirty-three disabled writers. Each author guides the reader through the woods, along widely divergent paths of hope, fear, anger, humor, wisdom, patience, resignation. What they all have in common is the clarity and beauty of their writing. In "pain(t)-by-number," Lili Sarayrah tells us, "... when you see more than one side, speak more than one language, and know more than one kind of pain, you have trouble filling out forms." This book won't help you fill out forms, but it will help you to confront and appreciate the complexities of life.
-Joanne Durham, poet and author of To Drink from a Wider Bowl
"In Between Spaces is filled with unbridled vulnerability, searing empathy, and a sense of far-reaching hope. But more than anything, this is an anthology pierced through with beauty. I was left in tears of sadness and hope."
-Tod Goldberg, New York Times bestselling author of Gangsterland, Gangster Nation, and The Low Desert: Gangster Stories
About the Author :
Rebecca Burke is a graduate of George Mason University's MFA program in creative writing, the acquisitions editor at Stillhouse Press, and a former member of the fiction editorial team at So to Speak. Her work has been published in Peatsmoke Journal, Survivor Lit, Breakwater Review, and elsewhere. You can follow her on Twitter @BeccaBurke95 and find all of her work at rrburkewrites.com
Review :
"Stories of disability are too few and too often told by non-disabled writers, but this collection's value goes far beyond representation. The wise, funny, heartbreaking, and joyful work in these pages can show any reader, disabled or not, how to navigate an unpredictable world."
-James Tate Hill, author of Blind Man's Bluff
"Nobody is ever out of the woods. Life is all about the woods," Teresa Milbrodt explains in "Cyclops Notes," her nonfiction selection in this remarkable anthology of poetry and prose by thirty-three disabled writers. Each author guides the reader through the woods, along widely divergent paths of hope, fear, anger, humor, wisdom, patience, resignation. What they all have in common is the clarity and beauty of their writing. In "pain(t)-by-number," Lili Sarayrah tells us, "... when you see more than one side, speak more than one language, and know more than one kind of pain, you have trouble filling out forms." This book won't help you fill out forms, but it will help you to confront and appreciate the complexities of life.
-Joanne Durham, poet and author of To Drink from a Wider Bowl
"In Between Spaces is filled with unbridled vulnerability, searing empathy, and a sense of far-reaching hope. But more than anything, this is an anthology pierced through with beauty. I was left in tears of sadness and hope."
-Tod Goldberg, New York Times bestselling author of Gangsterland, Gangster Nation, and The Low Desert: Gangster Stories
"In Between Spaces offers an immersive reading experience that highlights multiple ways of being a disabled person in the world. Through poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, the authors reveal and rip through shame and stigma to expose the 'frontal lobe like feathers of a bird' (Rob Colgate) and 'bruises like purple and yellow crocuses' (Natalie E. Illum). This anthology celebrates the power of difference with all of its messy and blurred edges, brain and pain fogs, and vibrating words that welcome us to move in whatever way available to the rich hum of this collection."
-Stephanie Heit, author of Psych Murders
"This bold and moving anthology represents a wide variety of authors living with disability, offering a marvelous array of voices and using unique forms, styles, and points of view. Rendered with heart, humor, and truth throughout, In Between Spaces is an important and necessary contribution to the conversation around disability."
-Elizabeth Crane, author of This Story Will Change
"Long overdue and awaited, In Between Spaces explores disability and difference with humor, frankness, and hard-fought wisdom."
-Julija Sukys, author of Siberian Exile: Blood, War, and a Granddaughter's Reckoning.
