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Literary Prizes Celebrating Disabled People

By Grace Briggs-Jones, Florrie Hulbert, Daisy Shayegan and Harry Banham


The ADCI (Authors with Disabilities and Chronic Illness) Literary Prize was established in 2022 by author Penny Batchelor and publisher Clare Christian, alongside The Society of Authors, to encourage and highlight positive representations of disability in literature. Each year the prize is open to authors with a chronic illness or disability who have written novels which include at least one chronically ill or disabled character. In its second year running, the prize only has one previous winner: Spear by Nicola Griffith.


This year, founder Penny Batchelor was joined by seven other writers on the judging panel: Rowan Buchanan, Karl Knights, Julia Lund, Selina Mills, Nii Ayikwei Parkes, Vikki Patis and Chloe Timms. Collectively, they bring together decades of experience in novel writing, poetry and living with disabilities or chronic conditions. Chloe Timms, for instance, was diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy at eighteen months old, and Selina Mills is legally blind. 


Here, we will look at the winner and runner-up for the 2024 ADCI Literary Prize and take a look at other prizes which celebrate the representation of disabilities or chronic illnesses.


Mother Sea by Lorraine Wilson


Mother Sea, Lorraine Wilson's third novel, is an exploration of how climate change affects the most vulnerable in the world. 


A community on a fictional, remote and tiny island in the Indian Ocean are facing multiple challenges: rising sea levels, crop failure and infant mortality due to tetanus. Sisi de Mathilde, a member of the community living on the island, is a scientist working to save the crops, but suffers after her husband dies, leaving her widowed and pregnant. Meanwhile, Englishman Kit arrives on the island as a relative of the menacing Administrator, whose motives are shadowy. When these outsiders try to persuade the community to abandon the island, Sisi must make some difficult decisions, wrought by the forces she is facing.


Wilson, formerly an ecologist, conducted extensive research to build her fictional island. She meticulously mapped out what the topography and ecosystem would look like, and how a community would evolve in such a setting, drawing commonalities from small island communities around the globe.


Mother Sea is a lyrical, poignant novel that engages with questions surrounding climate change, colonialism, womanhood, community and how to make good decisions in the face of natural disaster and a globalised world. A worthy winner of the 2024 ADCI Literary Prize.


All the Little Bird Hearts by Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow


All the Little Bird Hearts is Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow’s lyrical and poetic debut novel and this year’s runner up. 


The story is centered around cautious Sunday Forrester and her headstrong and clever sixteen-year-old daughter, Dolly. When two strangers move in next door and disarm Sunday with their charm, will she be able to see their sinister intent before it is too late? 


This novel handles disabilities and chronic illnesses with a hint of sensationalism, but a winning sense of storytelling. With restrained yet haunting prose, and remarkable ambition, this is a story that will stay with the reader and should definitely be on your to-be-read list.

Lloyd-Barlow obtained her PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Kent, with author Amy Sackville serving as her doctoral adviser. All the Little Bird Hearts was developed as a result of her PhD studies and she became the first autistic author to be nominated for a Booker Prize, reaching the longlist in 2023.


The Disabled Poets Prize


The Disabled Poets Prize accepts entries from deaf and disabled poets aged eighteen and over and currently living in the UK full-time. Any work submitted must be individual and original and should not have been published and/or broadcast. 


There are two categories: Best Single Poem and Best Unpublished Pamphlet. Anyone entering the latter category cannot have already published a pamphlet or a collection of work. Eligible persons can enter both categories but only submit one entry per category. 


CRIPtic Arts, Spread the Word and Verve Poetry Press collaborate on the prize, illuminating the incredible work produced by deaf and disabled poets; ensuring all poets gain greater prominence and are supported to develop further. Deaf and disabled poets often face barriers when building their careers, with limited opportunities designed around their needs, but this collaboration on this prize ensures their needs are heard and met.


The winner of 2024’s Best Single Poem category was Gayathiri Kamalakanthan for Eating An Orange, with Rachel Burns’s Blue Monday coming in at second place, and third place going to Alex Mepham for Dark Matter. The winner of Best Unpublished Pamphlet 2024 was Susie Wilson’s Nowhere Near As Safe As A Snake In Bed. Anna Starkey came in at second with All These Frequencies and third place went to Amber Horne for So She Spoke. For both categories, first place receives £500, second place £250 and third place £100. 


Congratulations to all the winners and runners up! Be sure to keep an eye out for any future contestants of these amazing prizes, and don’t forget to check out the past winners and runners up too!

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