[Image: Three figures at night, caught in a searchlight shining from a destroyed cityscape. There are a child and adult holding hands, and a taller figure walking with arm crutches.]
Defying Doomsday Apocalypse-survival fiction with disabled and chronically ill protagonists
Hey all—Editor Diane here.
Look, with the world the way it is… I’ve given a lot of thought to various apocalypses, natural disasters (hellooo Cascadia subduction zone), and war. What would I do? What could I do? I’ve devoured all sorts of apocalypse and dystopian fiction, but I was still left asking, what does doomsday look like for sick and disabled folks? It feels lonely when nobody seems to be talking about it.
This book really filled a need for me. There are very few disabled folks in science fiction (let alone well-developed and represented ones), and to see a character like us is powerful. Even more powerful is to actually see scenarios played out—see the ways disabled folks survive, help, or even die in the apocalypse, just like able-bodied folks see anytime they pick up a dystopian fiction novel. It’s a form of recognition. It’s a form of processing. And it’s a real source of validation.
The stories in this anthology are really fantastic, with an extremely wide range of disability and chronic illness. They don’t all have happy endings (in fact, some of the are really gritty), but they do explore what the apocalypse means to us.
[Image: A digital painting of a person with long hair, cute headband, and utility shoulder belt seated in a futuristic-looking wheelchair and holding a small potted plant. They look at butterflies and plants nearby. Behind them is the grown-over ruins of a city.]
Hey folks, Twelfth Planet Press is at it again! Say hello to Rebuilding Tomorrow, a POST-apocalyptic companion to Defying Doomsday.
They’re currently crowdfunding to make this wonderful idea a reality, so please do help if you can! The eBook version is quite affordable, at ~$7 USD (prices on site are AUD), and although the crowdfunding site Pozible may not be familiar to you, we can confirm that signup and payment is super easy.
