Summer Series – Knee Brace Press

Knee Brace Press’ summer series will take place over June, July, and August. Each month, we will feature panels of folks creating work about chronic conditions, disabilities, mental health, and/or neurodivergence.

Summer 2025

Grief in YA

June 21, 2025

On Saturday, June 21, 2025, at 2 p.m. EST/11 a.m. PST, Knee Brace Press hosted a virtual panel about Grief in YA, featuring authors Jonny Garza Villa, Lillie Lainoff, and Robbie Couch. You can watch the recording on our YouTube channel or using the video player below.

Coming Out, Mental Health, and Writing

July 19, 2025

On Saturday, July 19, 2025, at 2 p.m. EST/11 a.m. PST, Knee Brace Press hosted a virtual panel about Coming Out, Mental Health, and Writing, featuring authors Dallas Smith and Maya Ameyaw. You can watch the recording on our YouTube channel or using the video player below.

Autistic Writers Writing Autistic Characters

August 16, 2025

Join us on Saturday, August 16, 2025, at 6 p.m. EST/3 p.m. PST for a virtual panel about Autistic Writers Writing Autistic Characters, featuring authors Bryanna Bond, Jackie Khalilieh, and Quinton Li.

Authors Bryanna Bond, Quinton Li, and Jackie Khalilieh.

Summer 2024

Join us on Tuesday, June 11, 2024, at 5 p.m. PST/8 p.m. EST for a virtual panel about immigration and mental health in books, featuring authors Diya Abdo, Natalia Sylvester, and Teow Lim Goh.

Join us on Saturday, July 13, 2024, at 11 a.m. PST/2 p.m. EST for a virtual panel about neurodivergence in romance, featuring authors J.K. Lambo, Mariama J. Lockington, Mazey Eddings, and Sonora Reyes.

Join us on Saturday, August 10, 2024, at 11 a.m. PST/2 p.m. EST for a virtual panel about bodies and disability in science fiction and fantasy, featuring authors Bethany Baptiste, Cait Gordon, and Julian R. Vaca.

Summer 2023

Join us on Thursday, June 15, 2023, at 5 p.m. PST/8 p.m. EST for a virtual panel about queer characters with chronic conditions, featuring authors Emme Lund, Rasheed Newson, and Jamieson Wolf. Register at EventBrite.

Queer characters and chronic conditions

Emme Lund is an author living and writing in Portland, Oregon. She has an MFA from Mills College. Her work has appeared in Electric Literature, Time, The Rumpus, Autostraddle, and many more. In 2019, she was awarded an Oregon Literary Arts Fellowship in Fiction. The Boy with a Bird in His Chest is her first novel.

Rasheed Newson is an author, a television drama writer, an executive producer, and a showrunner. My Government Means to Kill Me is his debut novel. Rasheed – along with his television writing partner, T.J. Brady – is a co-developer and executive producer of the drama series Bel-Air. Together, Rasheed and T.J. have worked on The Hundred, The Chi, and Narcos, among other drama series.

Jamieson Wolf is a number one best selling author and artist. He writes in many different genres. He lives in Ottawa Ontario Canada with his husband Michael and their cat Anakin, who they swear has Jedi powers. Learn more at www.jamiesonwolf.com.

Join us on Tuesday, July 18, 2023, at 5 p.m. PST/8 p.m. EST for a virtual panel about horror and mental health, featuring authors Britney S. Lewis, L. Marie Wood, and Camri Kohler. Register at EventBrite.

On horror and mental health: Britney Lewis, author of The Undead Truth of Us, strongly supports We Need Diverse Books and is an avid follower of #DVpit and #BVM. When she isn’t daydreaming about new stories, Britney can be found binge-watching TV shows with her husband and her pup or practicing West Coast Swing. She lives in Kansas City. L. Marie Wood is an award-winning dark fiction author, screenwriter, and poet . She won the Golden Stake Award for her novel The Promise Keeper. She is a MICO Award nominated screenwriter and has won Best Horror, Best Action, Best Afrofuturism/Horror/Sci-Fi, and Best Short Screenplay awards in both national and international film festivals. Raised by a welder and a Jack Mormon in the small town of Wallsburg, Camri Kohler worked her way to the grid city, Salt Lake. Camri earned her BA in English from the University of Utah before completing her MLIS at the University of Illinois. Camri is an archivist at PBS and spends her free time with her partner, her dogs, or her tomatoes. She is a thirty-year-old mess of unresolved issues which provide inspiration for her writing.

Join us on Wednesday, August 16, 2023, at 5 p.m. PST/8 p.m. EST for a virtual panel about writing essays and memoir about chronic conditions, featuring authors Mugabi Byenkya, Teona Studmire, and Paula Kamen. Register at EventBrite.