It’s July! When I think of July, I think of two things, Canada Day (because I’m Canadian) and Disability Pride Month.

For this month, I’ll be sharing a book lists both about Canada and about Disability Justice.

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I recently learned about the Barbellion Prize.

The Barbellion Prize has only been around since 2020 and is currently on a short hiatus (hopefully to return this year). It’s new but I think it’s a valuable award for the literary community.

Disabled writers can face even more challenges to getting published, both due to the lack of interest from publishers and the additional effort needed for daily life, either from lack of accessibility, chronic pain/exhaustion, or other barriers.

It often takes a long time for writers to make money from their writing, and writing is often something they do on top of their job that provides income and other daily requirements. Now if you add on a disability, making a steady income and dealing with daily life can become more difficult, especially when the environment is inaccessible.

“The Barbellion Prize seeks to amplify voices that are seldom heard, and if they are, they’re not heard enough. It is a privilege reading all this wonderful work and I hope that more publishers discover disabled writers’ writing.”

Author and Assistant Professor of Literature, Dr Shahd Alshammari, and member of the 2020 judging panel

The Barbellion Prize is a great way to showcase disabled writers and give them the recognition they deserve. It can also encourage more disabled writers and possibly give them more power within the publishing industry.

I hope the Barbellion Prize will be back soon, and I can’t wait to see the future nominees and winners of the award.

For now I wanted to share with you the past three winners and a few of the other short-listed books.

Five books from the Barbellion Prize

Here’s a list of five books from the Barbellion Prize.

1. *Golem Girl by Riva Lehrer (2020)
2. *What Willow Says by Lynn Buckle (2021)
3. Chouette by Claire Oshetsky (2021)
4. *Book of Hours: An Almanac for The Seasons of The Soul by Letty McHugh (2022)
5. Polluted Sex by Lauren Foley (2022)

Keep reading to find out more about each one. I’ve listed them in order of when they were published.

*Winner of the Barbellion Prize

Golem Girl (2020)

by Riva Lehrer

What do we sacrifice in the pursuit of normalcy? And what becomes possible when we embrace monstrosity? Can we envision a world that sees impossible creatures?

In 1958, amongst the children born with spina bifida is Riva Lehrer. At the time, most such children are not expected to survive. Her parents and doctors are determined to “fix” her, sending the message over and over again that she is broken. That she will never have a job, a romantic relationship, or an independent life. Enduring countless medical interventions, Riva tries her best to be a good girl and a good patient in the quest to be cured.

Everything changes when, as an adult, Riva is invited to join a group of artists, writers, and performers who are building Disability Culture. Their work is daring, edgy, funny, and dark — it rejects tropes that define disabled people as pathetic, frightening, or worthless. They insist that disability is an opportunity for creativity and resistance. Emboldened, Riva asks if she can paint their portraits — inventing an intimate and collaborative process that will transform the way she sees herself, others, and the world. Each portrait story begins to transform the myths she’s been told her whole life about her body, her sexuality, and other measures of normal.

Written with the vivid, cinematic prose of a visual artist, and the love and playfulness that defines all of Riva’s work, Golem Girl is an extraordinary story of tenacity and creativity. With the author’s magnificent portraits featured throughout, this memoir invites us to stretch ourselves toward a world where bodies flow between all possible forms of what it is to be human.

Links:

• You can find out more on:
  • Goodreads
  • Storygraph
  • Author’s Website
  • Wikipedia
    • On the author
• You can buy the book here on Amazon.

What Willow Says (2021)

by Lynn Buckle

Sharing stories of myths, legends and ancient bogs, a deaf child and her grandmother experiment with the lyrical beauty of sign language. Learning to communicate through their shared love of trees they find solace in the shapes and susurrations of leaves in the wind.

A poignant tale of family bonding and the quiet acceptance of change.

Links:

• You can find out more on:
  • Goodreads
  • Storygraph
  • Author’s Website
  • Wikipedia
    • On the author
• You can buy the book here on Amazon.

Chouette (2021)

by Claire Oshetsky

An exhilarating, provocative novel of motherhood in extremis

Tiny is pregnant. Her husband is delighted. “You think this baby is going to be like you, but it’s not like you at all,” she warns him. “This baby is an owl-baby.”

When Chouette is born small and broken-winged, Tiny works around the clock to meet her daughter’s needs. Left on her own to care for a child who seems more predatory bird than baby, Tiny vows to raise Chouette to be her authentic self. Even in those times when Chouette’s behaviors grow violent and strange, Tiny’s loving commitment to her daughter is unwavering. When she discovers that her husband is on an obsessive and increasingly dangerous quest to find a “cure” for their daughter, Tiny must decide whether Chouette should be raised to fit in or to be herself—and learn what it truly means to be a mother.

Arresting, darkly funny, and unsettling, Chouette is a brilliant exploration of ambition, sacrifice, perceptions of ability, and the ferocity of motherly love.

Links:

• You can find out more on:
  • Goodreads
  • Storygraph
  • Author’s Website
• You can buy the book here on Amazon.

Book of Hours: An Almanac for The Seasons of The Soul (2022)

by Letty McHugh

Over the course of the pandemic, a complication with my chronic illness left me alone in a darkened room for three weeks. I drew comfort from an imagined Book of Hours. Half Almanac, half prayer book, medieval Books of Hours offered guidance for every situation and every day of the year. As I recovered I started to wonder, where was the spiritual guidebook for people like me; lost, sick, artists who watch too much reality TV? I couldn’t find one, so I made my own.

Borrowing wisdom from Anglo-Saxon hermits, contemporary artists and The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Book of Hours is a collection of lyric essays and poetry exploring what it means to have faith, why we chase suffering and how to take solace in small joys.

Links:

• You can find out more on:
  • Goodreads
  • Storygraph
  • Author’s Website
• You can buy the book here on Amazon.

Polluted Sex (2022)

by Lauren Foley

A pregnant woman takes the ferry to the UK. A fractious intimate relationship develops between an Irish woman, an English man, and her girlfriend. Two ungendered characters contest the same female body. A deserted wife takes a lover but remains unsatisfied. Lauren Foley’s debut collection of dramatic short stories, Polluted Sex, is fearless in its depiction of women’s bodies and sexuality, offering an unflinching window into Irish girl and womanhood.

Links:

• You can find out more on:
  • Goodreads
  • Storygraph
  • Author’s Website
• You can buy the book here on Amazon.

Final thoughts

I hope you found something of interest in this list of books.

I’m always looking for more suggestions of books to read. I’d love to know which books you love or that you would recommend. Let me know in a comment below!

Have you read any of these books? What did you think of it?

I’d love to hear your thoughts in a comment below.