DisWrites: Building a Community of Disabled Writers

CILT Presents
DisWrites: Building a Community of Disabled Writers

In this four-session virtual interactive workshop, hopeful and emerging disabled writers will be guided by professional disabled writer-mentors Dorothy Ellen Palmer (Fiction) and Melissa Graham (Non-Fiction):

• to meet other emerging and established disabled writers
• to workshop fiction and/or nonfiction writing together
• to share information about the routes to publication, especially for disabled writers
• to form a supportive disabled writers’ community

When: Tuesday evenings in September 2022
September 6, 13, 20 and 27
7pm-8:30pm
Where: Over zoom
Cost: Free
Deadline to register: Thursday Sept 1 at 5pm
To register click here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYuce-hrT0sHtSNaIXRT0Bb8tp0d_JYJlIx

Please let us know about any accommodation needs when you register.  Automatic captions will be turned on. ASL to English interpretation will be available if need is confirmed by registration deadline.

If you need support with registration or need more information, please contact Rebecca
by email rebecca.wood@cilt.ca
or call 416-599-2458 extension 291 TTY: Dial 711 for Bell Relay Service

We are using a broad definition of “Disability” here. We recognize people have different language that they prefer and that ableism, audism and sanism can be experienced no matter how you self-describe.  In this program, we will welcome and honour the language participants use to self-identify.

Writer-Mentors:

Dorothy Ellen Palmer, Fiction 
Dorothy Ellen Palmer is a disabled senior writer, mom of two, former English/Drama teacher, improv coach, union activist. Winner of the 2020 Helen Henderson Award for disability journalism, her work regularly appears in literary and disability journals. She is the author of four books: When Fenelon Falls, (Coach House, 2010), longlisted for the ReLit Award; Falling for Myself, (Wolsak and Wynn, 2019), a finalist for the Hamilton Book Award; Wiggins: Son of Sherlock, (MX Publishing, 2021) and Kerfuffle, the tale of an improv troupe making sense and nonsense of Toronto’s 2010 G20 protests, (Renaissance Press, 2022).

Melissa Graham, Non-Fiction
Melissa Graham is a disabled writer, activist, and roommate to two mischievous cats. Melissa is most known for her work as the founder of the Toronto Disability Pride March. Her writing focuses on raising awareness of intersectional issues facing disabled people. She is published in several national magazines and on her personal blog, https://melissagraham.ca