KNEE BRACE PRESS

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

trauma

  • 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.

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

    free.

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    Grief is a funny thing. It can be heart wrenching, devastating, or even performative. Jess Bareslow’s poem, free., details how hyperaware they were of how they needed to act after their father’s death.

  • Notes From A 10 a.m. Appointment

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    In which our protagonist enters the Zoom room for a psych evaluation, eager and nervous to uncover the next phase of her healing journey. Poet and author Clara Olivo details what happens when nothing goes as planned.

  • Ode to Chronic Illness

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    “Music is my liberation/the medicine to my soul/the bridge between two realms in which/I coexist.” Poet and author Clara Olivo is back with a poem about music, chronic pain, and resilience.

  • Try to Understand

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    So often, neurodivergent folks have to mask who they are in order to fit in. In her poem Try to Understand, poet and author Clara Olivo touches on how she hid her inner self in order to appear neurotypical, to the point she began to believe it was necessary.

  • An interview with Julian R. Vaca

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    In an alternative 1987, a disease ravages human memories. There is no cure, only artificial recall. We spoke with author Julian R. Vaca about his novel, The Memory Index, the sequel of which comes out in April 2023.

  • An interview with Clara Olivo

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    Clara Olivo’s The Whisper, The Storm and The Light In Between is a poetic memoir of diasporic despair and delight. An autobiographical reflection of the author’s journey as a queer, neurodivergent, disabled woman of color, Olivo’s collection touches on issues of American exceptionalism, race, miscegenation, and cultural memory. Olive is also a previous Knee Brace…