The Disability Issue
Snowflake magazine is looking for submissions of art, poetry, essays, flash fiction, photography, interviews and articles from self-identifying queer creators. We are happy to consider pieces that transcend or do not fit these mediums. Being queer already often sits outside the norm, so we encourage your pieces to do the same - really think outside the box!
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The submission itself should either be made by or involve an artist who identifies as LGBTQ+ (or both!).
For the safety of our editors, submissions without detailed trigger warnings will be rejected outright.
Disability is a difficult topic, due to the many ways in which disability affects each person individually and how they live their lives. What many people experience however is the consistent pains of living in a world neither forgiving or accommodating to you, and the ways in which we find joy and solidarity in the spaces we create for ourselves. Many of us in Snowflake Magazine’s team live, struggle and thrive with different forms of mental and physical disabilities, and we’re excited to ask our brilliant community to share their experiences too.
We would prefer to keep the general tone of this issue as positive and uplifting, but we are very open to rants and discussion around the ways disabled people are often failed by the society around us. Hopefully this issue will help our submitters, and our readership, think about themselves and ways they can truly help, or learn that they are not quite as alone as they think.
While everyone experiences disability differently, we’ve listed below some ideas and prompts that may help you get started on your work:
- When was the last time you experienced feeling grateful or thankful for being disabled?
- Have you ever been ‘diagnosed’ by a friend, a family member or a stranger, and then sought a professional opinion that confirmed it?
- When did you last have a great experience of allyship or representation from a completely unexpected source?
- When did you last have an upsetting experience of discrimination or poor representation from a completely unexpected source?
- What frustrates you or brings you joy regarding disability representation in larger media?
- Do you have a favourite aid, cane/crutch or chair, and is there a story attached to why it is your favourite?
- A large overlap between disability and queerness has been observed in many studies, what are your thoughts on this?
- Becoming disabled in later life usually comes with very different experiences than being born disabled. Have your relationships with friends or family changed as you have lived with your disability?
- In what ways would you say your disability has positively or negatively impacted your dating and/or sex life?
- Do you have any disabled family or friends? How do their experiences differ from your own? Have you learned something about yourself from listening to or being part of their lives?
- Have you ever disagreed with someone on whether a certain trait or condition would classify you as disabled? What if that person shared your condition and considers themselves disabled?
- Do you find yourself leaning toward dating or being friends with other disabled people?