MSU’s Collins amplifies disabled writers’ voices in new anthology
STARKVILLE, Miss.— According to a press release, Mississippi State faculty member Christie Collins’ new co-edited anthology features essays by 17 authors and educators living with disabilities, chronic illnesses, and neurodivergence, helping address a longstanding gap in creative writing scholarship.
Collins, an English department lecturer, and co-editor Saul Lemerond, an assistant professor of English at Hanover College in Indiana, have compiled “Divergent Writers: Disability, Illness, Neurodivergence, and Ableism in Creative Writing.” Released this spring by Bloomsbury Publishing, the collection brings together contributors from five countries who share firsthand experiences navigating ableism and bias in the creative writing profession.
“At the time we started this project, there were no books or academic articles available that discussed these issues in the field of creative writing, despite the reality that one in four writers face some form of disability,” Collins said.
“The status quo didn’t offer support or understanding for writers whose minds or bodies require extra time, different approaches to writing, and/or special accommodations,” she continued. “We aim to show that writers and their writing processes are wonderfully and vibrantly varied.”
The anthology is organized into four sections examining the experiences of disabled writers and writer-educators while exploring ways creative writing programs, classrooms, and workshops can become more inclusive. Contributors represent a wide range of disabilities and health conditions, including ADHD, autism, blindness, dyslexia, cerebral palsy, bipolar disorder, fibromyalgia, and rheumatoid arthritis.
Through personal essays, research, and professional reflections, the collection advocates for greater visibility, representation, and support for disabled writers across the literary community.
In the book’s foreword, Stephanie Vanderslice, a creative writing professor at the University of Central Arkansas, calls the anthology “a groundbreaking and necessary work, both capacious and critical.”
Anna Leahy, director of the poetry center Tabula Poetica and editor of Tab Journal at Chapman University, writes that “Divergent Writers” highlights an essential truth about creative writing: “We’re not all the same as each other,” and “Variety and variability is exactly what makes creative writing and the literature we produce exciting, relevant, and worthwhile for humanity.”
Collins’ work has appeared in Stirring, Phantom Drift, Kenyon Review Online and Poetry South, among other publications. Her poetry collection “The Art of Coming Undone” was published in 2023 by Black Springs Group, and her chapbook “Along the Diminishing Stretch of Memory” was published in 2014 by Dancing Girl Press.
Collins earned a bachelor’s degree from Mississippi University for Women, master’s degree from MSU and doctorate from Cardiff University in Wales.
For more details about MSU’s College of Arts and Sciences or the Department of English, visit www.cas.msstate.edu or www.english.msstate.edu.
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