KNEE BRACE PRESS

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

mental health is health

  • A white person with dark hair and brown eyes gazes at the camera. She wears a dark gray T-shirt. The background is red brick.

    Fishbowl

    By

    Fishbowl is a poem about feeling alone, even when the speaker is surrounded by people.

  • 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 #1

    By

    “And yet sometimes, I feel cold./There’s a deep void in my chest/No matter how much I try, it remains bare.” In this poem, AM Rodriguez details what it’s like to struggle with depression and grief, even when the rest of the world appears full of light.

  • 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, brown hair in braids smiles at the camera with her mouth closed. She wears circular black glasses and an orange sweatshirt. The background is white.

    I haven’t been sleeping well

    By

    “I remember what I told myself I’d eat for breakfast the day before/And then remember it’s still sitting right where I left it/Next to my unfinished coffee and my empty day planner.” Poet Emily Brandt details what it’s like to be in the middle of a depressive episode, when sleep alludes even the most exhausted…

  • A woman with blue eyes, dark-rimmed glasses, and dark pink lipstick smiles with her mouth closed. Her hair is dark with gray in it and she wears a white and black striped shirt and a black jacket. The background is blue.

    An interview with Tiffany Midge

    By

    In her book of essays, Bury My Heart At Chuck E. Cheese’s, author Tiffany Midge uses humor as an act of resistance and reclamation. While humor categories in traditional publishing are dominated by white authors, it’s high time Midge take her place as one of the funniest names in satire.

  • A white person, with long, dark hair and glasses smiles at the camera. The background is all thin threes and blue skies.

    An interview with E.M. Anderson

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    No one understands why eighty-three-year-old Edna Fisher is the Chosen One, but Edna, armed with only gumption and knitting needles, leaps at the chance to leave the nursing home. We spoke with author E.M. Anderson about The Remarkable Retirement of Edna Fisher, mental health and invisible illness representation, and American white pelicans.

  • An interview with Bridgette Dutta Portman

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    Olive Joshi has messed up big time. When she falls through a portal into her own abandoned story, Olive finds double suns scorching the earth, a brutal prince seeking power, and her heroine missing. We spoke with author Bridgette Dutta Portman about The Coseema Saga, the third book of which is out now.

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

    Ghosts

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    “I think about ghosts and love./I think about haunted houses and empty spaces.” So begins AM Rodriguez’s ethereal poem, Ghosts, about the grief that haunts us, the longing we can’t escape, and a morbid curiosity the speaker can’t shake.

  • 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

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    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.

  • The picture shows the cover of The Recall Paradox by Julian R. Vaca. The text on the top says, "In this war, memories are weapons."

    Book Excerpt: The Recall Paradox

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    Author Julian R. Vaca is back with the sequel to his YA dystopian debut, The Memory Index, in which alliances are made, memories disappear, and no one is who they seem to be. The Recall Paradox is out April 11, 2023.