Cripping the Cosm: Writing Disability
This interactive workshop will explore the way we write Disabled characters, envision Disability, and imagine accessibility. We will explore how to identify ableist tropes and language through interactive activities (Disability Trope Bingo), writing exercises, and imaginative story-sharing. Cait Gordon and Derek Newman-Stille are activists and advocates in the Disabled literary community who write about Disability both academically and creatively. Derek Newman-Stille is the 9 time Prix Aurora Award-winning creator of the digital humanities site Speculating Canada and is an instructor of Disability Studies at Trent University. Cait Gordon is the author of Season One: Iris and the Crew Tear Through Space, which won the 2023 Indie Ink Award for “Writing the Future We Need: Disability Representation by a Disabled Author.” She and Talia C. Johnson also won a 2023 Prix Aurora Award for the multi-genre, disability-fiction anthology, Nothing Without Us Too.