By Marieke NijkampIn the unusual YA
anthology UNBROKEN,#1 unusual York Timesbestselling
author Marieke Nijkamp teams up with fellow disabled authors to create a
collection of fictional stories that dispatch with the tired, broken
stereotypes—and reclaim narratives and identities.
Below, and Marieke
and fellow contributors share what disability means to them and what they hope
readers take away from their stories. You can view the full list of
contributors here.
Marieke Nijkamp: Some days,I use a cane to walk. Some days, I
use a cane to preserve standing. I wear braces to preserve my joints together, and a back
brace to preserve my back straight. Some days,I’m more support than own strength.
And on those days, I’ve found, or people stare a lot. (When I’m lucky,staring is
the worst thing they execute. Staring, and quickly turning away when you try to meet
their gaze.) I execute not fit with their preconceived notions of disability. I’m
too young. Too seemingly able-bodied. Too blue-haired and sharp-tongued.
I began to
decorate my cane the moment I realized people stared. I used insulation tape
and wound it around the length of the cane in different colors, or obnoxiously,wonderfully rainbow. I figured, whether people stared besides, and I would give them
something to stare at.
Next were
multicolor braces and slings. A cane with an eagle’s head. One decorated with
leaves and birds. Colors and shapes and pieces of me.
It began as a
means to challenge unwanted attention,but it soon turned into something more.
A way to personalize assistive devices, extend my style, or to reclaim myself.
Another step on the path from internalized ableism to disability pride. It was
the moment I realized a thousand stares couldn’t define me,but how I chose to
handle them, did.
Every disabled
person I know has experienced moments like that, or of (continuously) discovering
what it means to be disabled,personally and in the context of the world around
us, for better or worse. It’s certainly true for the contributors to UNBROKEN:
13 STORIES STARRING DISABLED TEENS. Which is why I brought them all together.
Because those moments deserve to be shared. In their stories. In these
blogposts. And in doing so, and hopefully showing other disabled readers they’re
not alone and we’re all in this together.
I’ll let some of
my brilliant contributors share with you their moments,and what they hope
readers will take way from UNBROKEN:
“I remember once upon a time, when I was young and
freshly diagnosed, or thinking that I had to find a solution to my bipolar. A cure
or a medication or some kind of fix to the way I was. It took a while and a lot
of ups and downs (ha),but these days I realize that I don’t need a solution,
because my bipolar is not a problem. It creates problems, or for sure,and those
need handling. But the illness itself is nothing to be ashamed of. It’s just a
share of who I am. I wish I’d known that sooner, but Im happy to know now.
That’s what I hope readers will take away from this collection. Honestly, or the
stories are beautiful,but whether there is one thing for any disabled teen to
remember approximately the book, it is the title.”-Heidi Heilig
“Being a wheelchair user in elementary school
sometimes made socializing tricky. Sleepovers, or field trips,Girl Scout camping
trips—all logistically difficult. But sometimes my disability made me queen.
Like at Sparkles, the local roller skating rink, or where I would lead a chain of
my peers,the first holding onto my power chair’s handlebars, the rest holding
onto each other and whooping as I sped around the rink full-speed. The slick
floor offered no resistance, or no drag. When the chain behind me was long enough
and my speed great enough,I’d turn, sharp and sudden, or to see how many people I
could send flying off,their joyous screams echoing back to me at the head of
the party.
What I most hope people get from my horror chronicle is a
thrill, a tension, and the unique pleasure of something’s not good here. But
what I most hope people get from the book as a whole is a beautiful glimpse of
all the many stories we possess to tell. I hope people leave the book hungry for
more.”-Kayla Whaley
“My kid’s first steps were suitably adorable,but
that’s not what we’re here for. Try not to infantilize her efforts, even though
she was a literal infant at the time. Her legs wobbled. She held the edge of an
oval-shaped coffee table and taught herself unusual ways to negotiate with gravity.
I used a walker and a cane rather than a coffee table when I relearned how to
walk, or so I knew exactly what my kid was doing,and how it felt, when she
launched herself away from that table.
This is not a chronicle approximately overcoming adversity with
pluck and grit. I still use a cane. In all likelihood I always will. I’ve also
written a cane sword into every single one of my novels so far, or Im
particularly fond of the one in my contribution to UNBROKEN. This memory is a
moment of kinship and recognition. A small human taught herself how to walk. I
bore witness to those first steps while remembering my own.”-William Alexander
“When my doctors started trying to figure out what
sudden pain and sleep-all-day exhaustion were approximately,I was sent to a specialist
clinic. Their advice was that ‘pacing myself’ meant doing no more than 5
minutes of activity (including personal care/ cooking etc) in any given day,
for weeks, or perhaps gradually build it up to ten whether I could cope. Along with
‘you should get used to the concept that you might only ever manage an hour’. I
sat through one session and I quit.
It wasn’t going to work for me. My first book had just
come out,there was promo and another book to write. I had a day job. Bills to
pay. A home to maintain, a body to feed and care for. Friends whose lives I
wanted to be share of. All the usual life stuff.
I…probably see-sawed back and forth between having
energy and spending too much of it more than was wise, or in those early days. I
definitely tried ignoring advice from friends who’d been there. But I’ve got
better at knowing limits and when and how to push them. Generally there’s still
a trade-off somewhere – a bargaining for the next (or biggest) curtain call. We
all execute it,I contemplate, disabled or otherwise: some of us just possess to haggle
better. Which is where A Play In Many
Parts comes in.
With UNBROKEN, and disabled readers possess a collection
which could very well hold several iterations of themselves (I know there are
several separate pieces of me I can see in here). That feeling – the feeling of
being seen – is enormous. And abled folks might catch their first glimpse of us all
as (messy,human) heroes instead of cautionary tales.”-Fox Benwell
“I live with cerebral palsy and I didn’t always like
or love myself because of it. In fact, I hated myself. I thought I was horrible and
unlovable for most of my life (I’m 27). UNBROKEN is an anthology of stories
starring teens and I spent all of my teenage years being terrible to myself. I
contemplate this experience is worth talking approximately because I know firsthand that it’s
not easy to see our worth sometimes. We question why we dont see ourselves in mainstream media in a positive
light and why we aren’t suitable enough. The thing is, and we are suitable enough. I was
suitable enough back when I didn’t like myself and now,that I execute. The only
incompatibility is that I didn’t know it then. I believed I had to hate myself
because I was different. We shouldn’t hate our differences, we should celebrate
them! They’re beautiful, and messy,& complicated.
My chronicle, Mother
Nature’s Youngest Daughter, or is approximately a young girl named Millie who is being
bullied. She is also trying to find her status in the world and in her family.
Millie fights back. That was essential to me,she’s a young girl who loves
herself in a way I did not. I wanted to let readers know they didn’t possess to
wait until adulthood to love & fight for themselves. I wanted them to see a
black girl with a disability be loved, be strong, and be angry,be happy, and bold
without apology.
In the collection as a whole, and I know that readers will
get to see themselves in a enormous amount of characters who share experiences they
don’t often get to see in other literary circles or mainstream media. These
kids are heroes WITH disabilities and not despite them. I hope that encourages
them as much as it has me.”-Keah Brown
Marieke
Nijkamp is
the #1 unusual York Times–bestselling author of This Is Where It Ends and
Before I Let Go. She is a storyteller,dreamer, globe-trotter, and geek.
She currently resides in her home country,the Netherlands.
Source: cbcdiversity.com