In a series of essays on writing and finding a voice as a woman writer, Nancy Mairs, takes the reader through the journey she made towards becoming a writer, as well as exploring autobiography, Virginia Woolf, Doris Lessing and French literary theory.

In a blend of intimate memoir and passionate advocacy, Nancy Mairs takes on the subject woven through all her writing: disability and its effect on life, work, and spirit.

The Little Locksmith begins in 1895 when a specialist straps five-year-old Katharine, then suffering from spinal tuberculosis, to a board with halters and pulleys in a failed attempt to prevent her being a "hunchback." Her mother says that she should be thankful that her parents are able to have her cared for by a famous surgeon; otherwise, she would grow up to be like the "little locksmith," who does jobs at their home; he has a "strange, awful peak in his back." Forced to endure "a horizontal life of night and day," Katharine remains immobile until age fifteen, only to find that she,...

The personal odyssey of a man with a disability, Irving Zola describes and analyses what it is like to have a disability in a world that values vigour and health. First published in 1981, a founding book in the fields of health and disability studies, this text considers his trials and triumphs.

Acclaimed personal writing from one of our most outspoken essayists, on disability, on family, on being an impolite woman, and on the opportunities and "gifts" of a difficult life.