F219. CANCELLED: Bipolar Writers

Status: Not Accepted

Room 007C, Henry B. González Convention Center, River Level
Friday, March 6, 2020
1:45 pm to 3:00 pm

 

Writers with bipolar disorder discuss the ways that our diagnosis contextualizes our writing lives. Whether or not we write about it, it impacts form, content, career, and community, presenting significant challenges and also opening up possibilities. Though institutions now claim to recognize disability as a protected category, bipolar disorder remains highly stigmatized. We offer this panel to contribute to conversations about neurodivergence, disability studies, and marginalized identities.


Participants

Moderator:

Colette Arrand founded and edits the Wanderer. She is the author of Hold Me Gorilla Monsoon and To Denounce the Evils of Truth. She is a student at the University of Georgia.

Shamala Gallagher is a queer Indian/Irish American poet and essayist. She is the author of the poetry collection Late Morning When the World Burns, and her work appears in Poetry, Black Warrior Review, Shenandoah, The Rumpus, and elsewhere.

Stephanie Heit is a poet, dancer, and teacher of somatic writing, Contemplative Dance Practice, and Kundalini Yoga. She is a Zoeglossia Fellow, bipolar, and a member of the Olimpias, an international disability performance collective. Her debut poetry collection is The Color She Gave Gravity.

Alexandra Mattraw’s full-length book of poems, small siren, is available, and her second book, We fell into weather, is forthcoming in spring 2020. She is also the author of four chapbooks and the founder/curator of the Lone Glen series of Oakland and San Francisco.

Sejal Shah's first book, a memoir in essays called This Is One Way to Dance, explores identity, language, movement, race, and place—forthcoming. She is the recipient of a 2018 NYFA Fellowship in Fiction.

#AWP24

February 7–10, 2024
Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City Convention Center