KNEE BRACE PRESS

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

The Magazine

At Knee Brace Press, we publish a wide variety of creative content. Check out our:

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

    free.

    By

    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.

  • 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.

  • Notes From A 10 a.m. Appointment

    By

    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.

  • 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.”

  • Ode to Chronic Illness

    By

    “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.

  • A black and white photo depicts a person with a small smile. They are crossing their arms over a black button up with small white dogs. Their hair is short and they wear round glasses.

    Staying Sparkly

    By

    Does your anxiety stick to you, like glitter or sand? In their new poem, Staying Sparkly, Sojourner “Hughes” Davidson details their relationship with anxiety and how closely it adheres to their skin, however often they try to wash it away.

  • To Thrive in Darkness

    By

    “We were friendly with the dark.” So begins Jamieson Wolf’s To Thrive in Darkness, a short story where the characters live in a fictional labyrinth, but the narrator’s experiences with disability are strikingly similar to Wolf’s own experiences with multiple sclerosis and cerebral palsy.

  • Try to Understand

    By

    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.

  • Summoning Serotonin

    By

    Sometimes, all we need is a little help, even if that help comes from an unexpected source. Author Amanda Cessor shares with us a fantastical short story about her very real experience with ADHD, anxiety, and depression.