Writing on Disability

One of the most fascinating panels this year will take place in the Recital Hall at 2.30.

Notions of ability and disability often rest in the eye (ear, mind, limb) of the individual, and as a culture we have been slow to find shared language to communicate about this continuum. Dr. Julie Elman, co-founder of MU’s Disability Studies program, leads a discussion with four dynamic, prize-winning authors about the considerations of writing disability (developmental, neurological, anatomical, auditory) into their novels, poetry, plays, and essays.

Molly McCully Brown is the author of The Virginia State Colony For Epileptics and Feebleminded (Persea Books, 2017),  which won the 2016 Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize.

Willy Conley is an award-winning playwright whose work has been produced both nationally and internationally. He is professor of Theatre and Dance at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC.

Susannah Nevison also won the Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize in Poetry for her collection, Teratology (Persea Books, 2015.)

Anand Prahlad is the head of the creative writing program at the University of Missouri. His memoir, The Secret Life of a Black Aspie, won the Permafrost Nonfiction Book Prize and was released in February. It is the first personal account to offer glimpses inside the world of an autistic African American.