About

Disability in Kidlit is on indefinite hiatus.

Disability in Kidlit is dedicated to discussing the portrayal of disability in middle grade and young adult literature. We publish articles, reviews, interviews, and discussions examining this topic from various angles — and always from the disabled perspective.

We believe that a thoughtful portrayal of disability requires more than memorizing a list of symptoms; we hope that sharing disabled people’s thoughts on stereotypes, pet peeves, particular portrayals, and their own day-to-day experiences will help our readers learn about the realities of disability, which are often different from what we see in popular media.

Our goals:
- To help readers, booksellers, librarians, and educators find good portrayals of disability in YA/MG novels, both by discussing books via reviews and by offering them the tools to judge these books for themselves.
- To help writers create more authentic, accurate, and respectful disabled characters.
- To help agents and editors recognize problematic portrayals of disability and steer their authors in the right direction.
- To help publishers share their books with disabled characters to our passionate readership.
- To give people from the disability community a place to discuss the books they loved, liked, and loathed.
Disability in Kidlit features guest contributors from both the writing and disability communities — readers, writers, bloggers, activists, and more. We don’t have a fixed cast of contributors. Many people send in a single article, while others return every few months. All our contributors and editors identify as disabled; within this category, we seek to present a wide range of perspectives and experiences.

Nothing about us without us, as the disability rights saying goes!

You can find us on Twitter, Tumblr, and Goodreads. We hope you’ll stick around!
Corinne Duyvis, senior editor and co-founder
Disability in Kidlit posts   Twitter   Tumblr   Goodreads

Corinne Duyvis is the critically acclaimed author of the YA sci-fi/fantasy novels Otherbound, which Kirkus called “a stunning debut;” On the Edge of Gone, which Publishers Weekly called “a riveting apocalyptic thriller with substantial depth;” and The Art of Saving the World, which Kirkus called “impossible to put down.” She is also the author of the original Marvel prose novel Guardians of the Galaxy: Collect Them All. Corinne hails from the Netherlands. She’s the originator of the #ownvoices hashtag.

She was diagnosed with autism at 14 and ADHD-PI at 23.

Kayla Whaley, senior editor
Disability in Kidlit posts   Twitter

Kayla is a graduate of the Clarion Writers’ Workshop with work appearing at The Toast, The Establishment, Uncanny Magazine, and in Kelly Jensen’s upcoming anthology Feminism for the Real World. She is represented by Beth Phelan of The Bent Agency. When not buying way too many books, she’s usually being overly sincere on the internet.

Kayla was born with Spinal Muscular Atrophy III, a neuromuscular disease, and uses a power wheelchair.

Natasha Razi, editor
Disability in Kidlit posts   Twitter

Natasha Razi writes adult and young adult fantasy. She’s lived in four continents and more cities than she can keep count of, most recently Washington DC, where she works as an environmental analyst and freelance editor. Her special talents include memorizing song lyrics, making up cake recipes, and messing up the editor team’s naming pattern by not being named Katasha.

Natasha has a variety of chronic physical and mental conditions.

Yahong Chi, social media coordinator
Twitter

Yahong (娅泓) is a current student in Québec, Canada, studying management and writing diverse MG & YA. She enjoys watching TV, knitting and Tumblr.

Kody Keplinger, co-founder and fairy godmother
Disability in Kidlit posts   Twitter   YouTube

Kody is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of several books for kids and teens, including The DUFF, which was adapted into a major motion picture in 2015, and a companion novel, Lying Out Loud. Her most recent book, Run, was released in June 2016. Kody is also a writing teacher, a guide-dog user, and a body-positive fashion lover.

She was born legally blind and, at age eight, diagnosed with a condition known as Leber’s Congenital Amaurosis, which leaves her with poor light perception and tunnel vision.
You can reach the editors at team@disabilityinkidlit.com. Before you do so, please look through our general FAQ and our Honor Roll FAQ to make sure your question hasn’t already been answered.

You also find us online at Twitter, Tumblr, and Goodreads.