KNEE BRACE PRESS

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

chronic pain

  • 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

    By

    “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.

  • A Black person with white-rimmed glasses smiles widely with their eyes closed. They are holding their book, DEAR PHILOMENA by Mugabi Byenkya, and are surrounded by a circle of light.

    texting a friend in 2021

    By

    Mugabi Byenkya’s latest poem, texting a friend in 2021, is about recovery, boundaries, and protecting your peace.

  • A tabby cat sleeps on a purple shirt. Her paws are tucked under her head. She might just be the cutest cat ever.

    Spoons

    By

    EJ Croll’s speculative short story, Spoons, is about their own experience of chronic fatigue, chronic pain, and the frustration of living with these limitations.

  • The image is all in black, white, and gray and is divided into three sections. The first shows text reading, "An almost invisible cause. Static moving. Patterns of sounds, invisibly visual." There is a dark figure at the bottom. The second image shows the words, "HYPER ACOUSTIC" built out of blocks. The image is very busy with a lot of cut out shapes in the background. The last image is mostly text, but the words keep getting cut off. There is also an arrow pointing down.

    Layers of Hyper Acoustic Pain

    By

    Layers of Hyper Acoustic Pain by Luca M Damiani uses the artist’s writing, artworks, and photography based on his own disability, showing layered moments of invisible sensory disorder.

  • A white woman with short hair wears round glasses and a black sweater. She gazes at the camera. The photo is in black and white.

    Spoons

    By

    “I woke up/faced with my limitations/A body yesterday/so tired it physically was done.” In her third poem for Knee Brace Press, Amba Elieff writes about spoon theory, fatigue, and learning to understand her body’s limitations.

  • A Black person with white-rimmed glasses smiles widely with their eyes closed. They are holding their book, DEAR PHILOMENA by Mugabi Byenkya, and are surrounded by a circle of light.

    An interview with Mugabi Byenkya

    By

    Memoirist and magical realism author Mugabi Byenkya writes for themselves. Or, more accurately, the angsty, confused, Black, Ugandan-Rwandan-Nigerian, disabled, queer, polygender, and neurodivergent little human they used to be and still are.

  • A white woman with short hair wears round glasses and a black sweater. She gazes at the camera. The photo is in black and white.

    An interview with Amba Elieff

    By

    Amba Elieff spent most of her life a closet poet. Now, she’s put her work out there for all to see in her debut collection, Maiden, Mother, Crone. We spoke with Elieff about sacred spaces, womanhood, and what it means to be in community with other through her work.

  • A white woman with short hair wears round glasses and a black sweater. She gazes at the camera. The photo is in black and white.

    Spoon Tattoo

    By

    Researchers at the University of Massachusetts found that nearly ninety-six percent of chronic medical conditions can be considered “invisible illnesses.” Poet Amba Elieff details her own experiences with chronic illness via one small tattoo.

  • Searching for Bunker Norms

    By

    It’s the end of the world. Then again, we Spoonies have always been able to adapt. While the non-disabled, richest one percent were hidden underground in bunkers during the catastrophe, a network spearheaded by a disabled woman had secretly gathered to protect the most disregarded of the population.

  • 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.”