Jillian Weise is a poet, performance artist and disability rights activist. Weise’s books include The Amputee’s Guide to Sex, The Colony and The Book of Goodbyes. She teaches at Clemson University. She shares five things she’s reading, watching and thinking about right now.
1. Automatic Writing / The Way Out
Last fall I saw this band play in the basement of Public Space One in Iowa City. The entire audience got zippy and there was even some moshing and we were all shocked to be so enthralled. Who were these musicians? And where did they come from? They reminded me of Sunny Day Real Estate and The Breeders except they were in high school and I thought, ‘Oh damn! They’re gonna split up and go to college.’ But they are still rocking and they just dropped their debut LP. Check out ‘Cops’ if you want some company with that secret crush you’ve been having (‘There’s so many better things I could be doing with my time than / wondering which shirt to wear that you might like’).
2. It’s Just Nerves: Notes on a Disability / Kelly Davio
This month Squares and Rebels publishes Davio’s essay collection. I have been waiting for this forever! Davio writes with speed, humor and grit about family, identity and culture. She is also a poet (Burn This House) and reads poems over here.
3. Porn Portraits / Suzannah Sinclair
Sinclair is a feminist watercolorist. Oh, how I love this series. She is posting work-in-progress on Instagram.
4. Will Someone Rescue Atrium from Northwestern University Already?
Atrium – a magazine of bioethics – published an issue titled ‘Bad Girls’ that so scared the medical school, the board of trustees and the president of the university that they censored the issue and shut the magazine down. (See here for the full scoop.) It’s time for somebody to buy Atrium. Probably Granta should buy it. Or Vice. Or any magazine that thinks bioethics and disability and healthcare might be hot topics now or tomorrow.
5. Tips for Writers / Tipsy Tullivan
Tipsy Tullivan is an ableist but I can’t help it. I have a soft spot for her. She wears a lot of pink and gives some really shitty, yet familiar, advice about writing. Check out ‘Write What You Know (Unless You’re Disabled, Then We Will Write You For You)’.
Photograph courtesy of the author
