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

  • The photo is in black and white and depicts a white person with long, dark hair smiling to the right of the shot.

    Stuck on That Ledge

    “He squats undercover/beneath unlit lintels, mantles, dust mites/spores.” Poet Mandy Beattie writes about the trauma of war in her first poem for Knee Brace Press, Stuck on That Ledge.

  • A white woman with light brown hair smiling with her mouth closed. The photo is a selfie. Also pictured: a bookcase in the background and a (really cute) brown and black cat.

    Invisible Disability

    Is your disability invisible, or is it not real at all? In her newest poem, April McCloud tackles medical gaslighting, self doubt, and more in a single declaration.

  • A white person with yellow-rimmed glasses and long, blonde hair. Their shirt reads, "THE FUTURE IS NONBINARY."

    I was not fine

    “I resent being 34 with no sense of self/beyond the trail of burned bridges,/broken trust,/and unfinished dreams.”

  • A white person with long, curly, brown hair wears a forest green sweater and black-rimmed glasses. She is smiling with her mouth and eyes closed.

    nothing changes whilst everything changes, or, 2005 through 2023

    “It’s getting bad again – I mean, this is technically the worst it’s ever been …” In her new poem, sickness in the seams of it all, Sophie Mattholie writes about her experience with POTS.

  • An Asian woman with black, shoulder length hair smiles widely at the camera. The background is blurred and seems to be trees.

    New Lessons on Anxiety

    In her follow up poem for Knee Brace Press, Heather Ann Pulido writes about finding community with people who love and support her, anxiety and all.

  • On the left: A white person with brown hair, colorful glasses, and purple lipstick wearing a blue shirt. On the right:A white woman with light brown hair smiling with her mouth closed. The photo is a selfie. Also pictured: a bookcase in the background and a (really cute) brown and black cat.

    Reason

    In their new poem Reason, Knee Brace alumni Elise Scott and April McCloud write about the stark contrast between the speaker’s devastation about losing their healthcare and the calm with which the robot over the phone changed the speaker’s life forever.

  • A person with long, brown hair, bangs, and black rimmed glasses hides half their face behind a black and brown cat with blue eyes.

    Untitled #2

    “I lose sight of my body/And I fear not recognizing/The girl looking back at me/Inside the cheap mirror in my room.”

  • A white person with yellow-rimmed glasses and long, blonde hair. Their shirt reads, "THE FUTURE IS NONBINARY."

    another existential crisis

    “I thought the pills would help/Ignore it/I see no reason/to pretend I am okay.” Poet Jess Barselow writes about masking and the tediousness of small talk.

  • A white woman with light brown hair smiling with her mouth closed. The photo is a selfie. Also pictured: a bookcase in the background and a (really cute) brown and black cat.

    Application for Disability 

    Poet April McCloud (she/her, 1% bionic human) writes about her complex relationship with disability in the form of an application.

  • A white person with long, curly, brown hair wears a forest green sweater and black-rimmed glasses. She is smiling with her mouth and eyes closed.

    sickness in the seams of it all

    “It’s getting bad again – I mean, this is technically the worst it’s ever been …” In her new poem, sickness in the seams of it all, Sophie Mattholie writes about her experience with POTS.