KNEE BRACE PRESS

A place for stories about chronic illness, disability, mental health, and neurodivergence.

Essays

  • A person in a brown tanktop and a white helmet climbing a rope and smiling at the camera.

    Hiding in Plain Sight: Life With and Without Masks

    By

    “I feel faint. Even a common cold leaves me sick for months and sometimes lands me in the emergency room. I have been assiduously masking since the beginning of the pandemic and so far, to the best of my knowledge, have avoided catching COVID. I will not be able to wear my mask for the…

  • A white person with round glasses and short, yellow hair taking a selfie. Xe wears a pink and blue striped button up over a black tanktop.

    We Didn’t Choose You

    By

    It’s the apocalypse! But will disabled survivors be left behind? This is a question Viktor Bruso explores in xir essay, We Didn’t Choose You.

  • A white man with ginger hair and a beard speaking into a microphone.

    Still Life With Pain

    By

    In his first essay for Knee Brace Press, Lev Raphael writes about the connections he shares with his late mother, including her coffee habits, her love of languages, and her arthritis.

  • A white woman with a brown bob smiles at the camera. She wears black, square-rimmed glasses and a gold necklace.
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    All In My Head

    By

    Journalist and author Emily Dwass shares an excerpt from her book, Diagnosis Female: How Medical Bias Endangers Women’s Health.

  • Lessons in Belonging

    By

    “The average able-bodied stranger, though, only notices the ways my body is different from theirs.” In her essay, Lessons in Belonging, Julie Weissman-Steinbaugh details her experience growing up with cerebral palsy.

  • A person with long, dark hair smiles as she looks off to the left. She wears a pink shirt with pink, purple, and blue flowers on it.

    Food: A Relationship

    By

    In her essay, Knee Brace Press EIC Nicole Zelniker chronicles her relationship with food through the lens of OCD, anorexia, and Crohn’s disease. The essay is an ode to recovery as well as community in the form of “badass, body positive friends.”