Try to Understand

So often, neurodivergent folks have to mask who they are in order to fit in. In her poem Try to Understand, poet and author Clara Olivo touches on how she hid her inner self in order to appear neurotypical, to the point she began to believe it was necessary. Read Try to Understand here.

Neurodivergent

At twenty years old, Julián Esteban Torres López wrote Neurodivergent, a piece about how his ADHD, aphantasia, autism, and OCD intersect in his own mind. Torres López is the founder of The Nasiona, a movement and non-profit that advocates for and centers personal stories of historically marginalized voices. Listen to and read Neurodivergent here.

Resection

As a stage IV cancer patient, Pacific Northwestern poet Lara Haynes Freed learned of a new metastasis. Her poem Resection chronicles her experience with her diagnosis. Freed holds an MA in linguistics from the University of Kansas and has been published in multiple literary magazines. Read the poem here.

Ache Awake

Sojourner “Hughes” Davidson’s poem, Ache Awake, deals with the speaker’s chronic pain, migraines, and insomnia. A DMV-based poet writing about the mind and the body, Davidson has previously published two poems in the Guilford College lit mag, The Greenleaf Review. Read the poem here.