KNEE BRACE PRESS

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

Poetry

Submit your poem to Knee Brace Press! We welcome new voices and veteran poets alike.

Guidelines

All submissions must relate to chronic illness, disability, mental health and/or neurodivergence in some way. What that means is pretty much up to you. If you think your piece covers any of these topics, send it out way!

Our poems

  • A white man with shoulder-length white hair and a white beard.

    True Enough

    “Her dying happened in slow motion, like in a/dream you know is a dream but you/can’t wake up from.”

  • A white woman with long, light brown hair wearing a black jacket and green pants. She smiles at the camera and stands in front of a large clock.

    Cabin Fever

    Grace F. Hopkins has been collecting myths and urban legends since she “wasted” her undergraduate degree studying English, Classics, and folklore. Read her poem at the link below.

  • A white man with shoulder-length white hair and a white beard.

    On Deck

    Alan Abrams writes about grief, love, and baseball in his latest poem for Knee Brace Press.

  • A woman with brown skin and long, brown hair gazes at the camera. She wears a pink shirt and a beaded black necklace.

    Biofeedback

    “It’s my first time. I sink into cushy recliner. A monitor tracks blood pressure. The therapist adheres a finger sensor, a final electrode as I shut my eyes.”

  • A white man sits in a black wheelchair and smiles to something off-camera. He wears a blue baseball hat and a green sweatshirt.

    ‘My Health Has Got Even Worse in the Last 3/4 Months,’ She Said

    In his latest poem, Andrew Hall writes about disability in the context of a relationship.

  • A black and white photo of a woman with long hear reading a book. She is sitting by a window and wears a light-colored sweater.

    Pill-chinko

    Red oblong, 3x… AM. Clink. LUNCH. Clink. DINNER. Clink. Repeat… 21

  • A white man with shoulder-length white hair and a white beard.

    For Rief

    In this poem about grief and death, poet Alan Abrams tells us what it’s like to watch a friend fade away, knowing you could be next.

  • A white woman taking a mirror selfie. She is smiling at the camera. She is holding phone, which is purple, and wears a shirt with Adam Driver's face on it several times over.

    Stitch by Stitch

    “I’ll spend my whole life/Disentangling from you/That’s all fine/I can handle it.”

  • Invalid Invalid

    Eli Underwood is a writer, organizer, and archivist living with CPTSD, ME/CFS, fibromyalgia, and Long Covid. Read their poem, Invalid Invalid.

  • Chaos Confetti

    For our one hundredth post at Knee Brace Press, poet Casey Sharp writes about her experience with ADHD.