Cavar
Madness comprises and composes all of what I do. For the last few years, I have been exploring Madness from a craft-oriented perspective, asking what a deliberate practice/praxis of nonsense does for my work. In my view, writing with and into Madness is not merely exploring “mental health” or “mental illness,” nor providing descriptive insight into a given set of diagnoses. Mad craft is for me a celebration of play, of complexity, and of the “surreal” which is in fact real for those excluded from normative regimes of sanity and truth. These pieces aim to reflect Mad complexities [which are also trans complexities, crip complexities, queer complexities…] without reduction or translation or other “recoveries” of legible meaning.
Cheryl Caesar
I am a breast cancer survivor and in remission from neuromyelitis optica, a condition similar to multiple sclerosis. These two images are self-portraits of me doing yoga, and there is a kind of human/plant fusion going on: “lotus hands” in the first case, and a spinal twist like the curve of a tomato vine in the second. (I was doing the yoga on our deck, and the tomato plant was growing next to me.) I teach writing at MSU and enjoy making art and poetry. Last summer, I won first prize for prose in the tri-county My Secret Lansing contest.
Kasey Conklin
As a biology student who spends way too much time reading research papers, Kasey Conklin likes to spend her free moments composing poetry. She likes to explore the debilitating nature of mental illness and hopes to share the sentiment that no one is truly alone.
Paul Hedges
Paul is a recent graduate from Michigan State University who loves to write and read all things fiction. When he’s taking a break from sci-fi or fantasy, Paul spends his time making stir-fry, jamming out on guitar to the group TOOL, and exploring a newfound love of poetry.
em irvin
My work is a resonance of barriers – a rhythmic echo of boundaries that are physical or invisible, arise abruptly or are established, press with force or in whispers, are felt by many or manifest as a singular event. Traces of these encounters persist as they are inherited as embodied knowledge, passed on and shared. These traces are remembered through my iterative material investigations by indexing fingers and tongues – movement and language –as I perform and write.
Grace MacLaren
Grace MacLaren is an English Major at Michigan State University, focusing on Creative Writing and taking a cognate in Film. Currently in her junior year, Grace (a lifelong Michigan resident) plans to be an author once she graduates, and enjoys experimenting with other forms of art and expression, such as drawing and puppetry.
Grace Eaton
I am a 21-year-old artist, filmmaker, and writer based in Toronto. My collage included in this zine is about shining, a concept I formed that challenges how disability and mental illness are represented in society and art. Disability and mental illness are often represented as undesirable in our culture, especially concerning the future. Shining (in the context of disability studies) rejects this and demands the visible presence of disabled people both now and in the future, similar to a beaming light. Shining also challenges representations of disability as lacking beauty. Instead, it declares disability as so beautiful that it can be used for as a tool for activism and change. In summary, the concept of shining proudly positions disabled people as so present now and in the future that our beauty cannot be ignored. I desire a future where we all flourish.
Jessica King
Jessica King (she/they) is a first-generation, late-diagnosed AuDHD undergraduate studying creative writing, comparative world literature, human development, and health humanities at Long Beach State University. Her publications can also be found in Nota Bene Honors Anthology, Sole Image Creative Arts Journal, and RipRap Journal. Specializing in disability studies and activism, she’s developed partnerships with campus programs, student clubs, nonprofit organizations, and online endeavors to advocate for communal awareness and acceptance. One of her projects includes the inaugural issue of Enabling Disabled Expressions, a multimedia anthology of disability narratives. Her activities can be followed on @TheWhiteDovePoet and her website, http://www.thewhitedovepoet.com
Heather Keven
Heather Nadia Keven has an extensive collection of both large earrings and treasured friends. She is homey, crafty, and ever curious about the experiences of others. Heather feels especially endearing towards her bed, bathtub, family, books, hand written letters, hiking, art museums, wildflowers, music, camping trips, fruit, and vegetables. She is known for taking too many photos. Heather currently lives in Johnson City, TN.
Michelle Jones
A lifelong resident of Sonoma County, Michelle Jones (She/They) is entering her final year in Sonoma State University’s M.A. in English (Literary Criticism) program. She currently works as a Teaching Associate within the SSU English Department as well as a CRLA Certified (Level 1) Tutor for the Writing Center (part of the Learning and Academic Resource Center (LARC)) at Sonoma State. Her scholarship focusses on contemporary American literature read through a Feminist-of-Color Disability Studies lens. After completing her M.A., she plans to obtain her Ph.D. in English Literature, Interdisciplinary Humanities, or another related field. Ultimately, Michelle intends to pursue a career as a postsecondary educator, dedicating herself to the expansion of inclusivity within the academy through her scholarship, pedagogical approach, and personal experience.
Scott Norman Rosenthal
I’m a survivor of the Psychiatric system. I experience neuro-metabolic “invisible disability.” The “Malingerer” was the first attempt to record the bizarre symptomatology. The poem concerning electroshock was done at the behest of an anti-psychiatric group.
Jessica Stokes
Jessica Stokes has a purple wheelchair and a lot of hair. They live in Michigan. Jessica is a disabled poet/performer/educator/scholar and co-founder of the HIVES Research Workshop on interdependent, multispecies, disability community at Michigan State University. Jessica analyzes contemporary poetry’s methodologies for crip climate survival. Their poetry has appeared in Wordgathering and We Are Not Your Metaphor: A Disability Poetry Anthology. Jessica’s scholarship has appeared in The Routledge Companion to Gender and Science Fiction and the Feminist Review, where recent work with collaborator Anuj Vaidya, “Resurrecting Jatayu,” has been published.
Michael Stokes
Michael Stokes is a sci-fi buff who is not buff. He lives in a state of confusion. He is a PhD candidate at Michigan State University. His work focuses on mutants and how they held the door open for human variety in an era of ugly laws and censorship around bodymind diversity by reading into the thrills and possibilities presented by science fiction pulps, film, and comics between 1904 and 1964. Michael’s work has been published in The Museum of Science Fiction’s Journal of Science Fiction and The Journal of Analogue Game Studies.
HIVES 