Cirrus@Austlit

'Orchestrating this feature was a gift—from the initial swift and positive responses, to the conversations and possibilities that emerged between the poets and poems themselves. Here are six poets, all based in the United Kingdom, who refresh, surprise, write fuently with and against assumptions around disability. They share an individual but symbiotic approach to health, medical narratives, social stigma, illness and disability through the original ways they merge experience, poetry, teaching and critical research. On a personal and scholarly level the poets give way to a host of contexts for relevant writing and discussion, and through this process translate to themselves and others private and social experiences of discrimination and breakthroughs. The poems are memorable, unusual, lit-up—as well as grounded—explorations of life and language. We hope this feature demonstrates how seamlessly combined critical and creative approaches to disability have significant potential to move conversations beyond neurotypical constructions of the able-bodied and minded.' 

 (Introduction)