12/9 #CripLit Twitter Chat: Disability & Fabulous New YA and MG Fiction

 

You are invited to the fifteenth #CripLit chat co-hosted by novelist Nicola Griffith, and Alice Wong of the Disability Visibility Project® on Sunday, December 9, 2018, 4 pm Eastern. We are delighted to have Marieke Nijkamp and Brigit Young join us in a conversation about writing, disability, and new Young Adult and Middle Grade fiction. Marieke is the editor of the YA short story anthology, Unbroken: 13 Stories Starring Disabled Teens, and Brigit is the author of Worth a Thousand Words, a new Middle Grade novel. We look forward to learning more about these great books—just in time for holiday shopping season!

Please note: This chat begins 3 hours earlier than our usual start time to take into account of the time difference between Europe and North America. Set your alarms and/or reminders; you don’t want to miss it!

Also note: These questions are for everyone. Our hope is that we can all self-promote a little and perhaps give eager readers ideas for gift-giving—or to ask their library to order or independent bookstore to stock. We want to hear about all the marvelous #CripLit out there!

Additional Links

• Marieke Nijkamp
• Best YA Books of 2018 That Feed Imaginations, Kirkus, 3 December, 2018
• Brigit Young
• Brigit Young Interview, Literary Rambles, 20 August, 2018
• Disability in Kidlit

How to Participate

Follow @DisVisibility @nicolaz  @mariekeyn and @brigityoung on Twitter for updates.

When it’s time, search #CripLit on Twitter for the series of live tweets under the ‘Latest’ tab for the full conversation.

If you might be overwhelmed by the volume of tweets and only want to see the chat’s questions so you can respond to them, check @DisVisibility’s account. Each question will tweeted 5 minutes apart.

Another way to participate in the chat is to use this app that allows you to pause the chat if the Tweets are coming at you too fast: http://www.tchat.io/

Here’s an article about how to participate in a Twitter chat: https://www.adweek.com/digital/how-to-join-a-twitter-hashtag-chat/

Check out this captioned #ASL explanation of how to participate in a chat by @behearddc

https://www.facebook.com/HEARDDC/videos/1181213075257528/

Introductory Tweets and Questions for 12/09 Chat

Welcome to the #CripLit chat on Young Adult and Middle Grade fiction. This chat is co-hosted by @nicolaz & @disvisibility. We also have guest hosts @mariekeyn and @brigityoung joining us today. Please remember to use the #CripLit hashtag when you tweet.

If you respond to a question such as Q1, your tweet should follow this format: “A1 [your message] #CripLit”

Q1 Roll call! Please introduce yourself and your work. Tell us a little about your journey to writing or editing fiction with disabled characters for young adults and children, and share any links to your work. #CripLit

Q2 Tell us what draws you to writing or editing fiction for young adults and children: What are its joys? Why is it so important? #CripLit

Q3 Do you think you have a substantial number of adult readers, too? Does that make a difference to what and how you write or edit? #CripLit

Q4 What are some writing challenges you have faced creating or editing disabled characters in YA/KidLit? What kind of disabled characters are missing from YA/Kidlit? CripLit

Q5 What are some great disabled characters or storylines in YA/KidLit? What are some problematic ones? #CripLit

The winter holidays are a great time to give books as gifts, or to borrow them from the library. We want you to self-promote a little here, as well as promote others. #CripLit

So if you’ve written a great book or short story—or more than one—we want to hear about them! Please include buy links or other useful information. #CripLit

Q6 Tell us about the best piece of fiction with disabled characters you’ve ever written or edited—published or not. Why would we love it? How can we read or listen to it? #CripLit

Q7 Who are some disabled writers and editors currently killing it in YA/KidLit? Which of their books should we know about and support? #CripLit

Q8 How far have we come in writing and publishing disabled stories for YA/Kidlit? What do you want to see in the future? #CripLit

Thank you for joining our #CripLit chat. Please continue the conversation! Many thanks to guest hosts @mariekeyn and @brigityoung!

A recap of this chat will be up tomorrow. Check the #CripLit hashtag. Feel free to contact @DisVisibility and @nicolaz with any ideas/feedback 😀