What does “disability art” mean to you? If you are like most people, disability art means a lot of “overcoming tough odds” and “Handicapable protagonists” an image, we as contributors, are happy to challenge. “It can be hard to get past that vibe,” Kari Turner said, in an online interview, “But I’m over here, writing my heart out and saying “I’m not your fucking metaphor, damn it.”
Breath and Shadow magazine itself was founded in an attempt to capture the “disability aesthetic” that founder Sharon Wachsler says most mainstream outlets tend to shy away from. “We wanted to create a space where disability is a given, and, as long as the writing is good, where disability’s impact on the writing is valued, not denigrated or misunderstood.”Poet and jewelry maker Lezli Azua Hope describes the challenge of “creating new metaphors” to fit her changed, present experience
Another aspect that makes “Breath” an anomaly, as it enters its awkward tween years,
is that it pays its contributors, all of whom have disabilities(Most online literary journals don’t), which might bring added value to our mission, even if an early review hadn’t said that “a well-crafted body of work is the mark of a true visionary.”
Payment matters for more than money. Kari Turner says “ I think people are so used to seeing people with disabilities as needy, they don’t see us as people with talents and resources to offer.”
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