About Us
Nerve to Write is a space for disabled, chronically ill, and neurodivergent writers to build the literary community we have long been denied. Often excluded from literary spaces who have the nerve to insist our stories do not matter or to require us to adhere to ableist standards in order to gain acceptance, we face the active erasure of our work. This erasure—which mimics the daily aggression of an ableist world—strikes a painful nerve that damages our stories and spirits.
Nerve to Write is an annual journal for those who have wondered how the ableist writing world has the nerve to deny our work access. This is a journal for writers who have wondered why editors have the nerve to say they have read too many stories about illness, to insist neurodivergent writers are making up or exaggerating the details of their lived experiences, to ask disabled writers to end on recovery. This is a journal for writers who wonder why most of the pieces about disability that appear in journals are written by abled family members or physicians.
This is a space dedicated to the rich expression and innovation of disabled, chronically ill, and neurodivergent writers. Here writers do not have to write for abled readers or translate their experiences for audiences who may not understand—or even believe—them. This is a space where disabled stories do not need to be cheerful or inspirational but can instead exhibit anger, sadness, sharp humor, and exquisite joy. Here writers do not need to shield readers from their suffering just as they do not need to perform their trauma. And this is a space that welcomes writing that directly addresses the disability experience but also writing that has nothing to do with disability at all, for this is not our only plot and purpose.
Sometimes the only thing more painful than disabled, chronically ill, and neurodivergent lives is trying to navigate ableist expectations, so we invite you to discover the nerve it takes to reject ableist literary spaces in favor of creating an inclusive space of our own. We invite you to reject the traditions that make you wonder if it is possible to keep creating and to find your nerve to write!
Meet The Team
Sarah Fawn Montgomery
Editor-in-Chief
Sarah Fawn Montgomery is the author of the craft text Nerve: Unlearning Workshop Ableism to Develop Your Disabled Writing Practice and Quite Mad: An American Pharma Memoir, which The Atlantic says, “Exemplifies a nuanced approach to life with mental illness” and The Paris Review describes as “The wakeup call that we need.” She is also the author of the essay collection Halfway from Home, winner of a Nautilus Book Award for lyric prose, the flash collection Abbreviate, and three poetry chapbooks. Fathom, a poetry collection about living with chronic pain and invisible disability, is forthcoming from The Propel Disability Poetry Book Series. She is an Associate Professor at Bridgewater State University, where she teaches creative writing and disability studies.
Mialise Carney
Assistant Editor
Mialise Carney is a writer whose stories and essays have appeared in swamp pink, Booth, Washington Square Review, and other places. She is a PhD student in creative writing and literature at the University of Cincinnati, where she reads for The Cincinnati Review and teaches writing.
Daniel David Froid
Assistant Editor
Daniel David Froid is the author of My Home Is Not There, a chapbook published by Bottlecap Press. His stories appear in Lightspeed, Nightmare, Black Warrior Review, Post Road, and elsewhere. He lives in Arizona.
Kaitlynn Davis is a neurodivergent and queer writer and student from the Boston area, who after getting her bachelors in English immediately dove into the Bridgewater State University master’s program. With a love of all things fierce, feminist, and fantastical, Kaitlynn adores supporting her community by reading and writing toward goals that enrich our lives and aid in empathizing with our fellow humans. When she is not fighting the mental demons, she’s instead fighting her four cats who are all either begging for treats, screaming at 3 am, or making biscuits into her exposed arm flesh while she’s trying to be productive.
Gray Dyer is an undergraduate English major at Bridgewater State University with a concentration in creative writing. When she isn’t engrossed in a Shakespeare play or a five-page paper, she’s either knee deep in a cozy life-sim game or watching a Disney movie for the millionth time. Outside of fantasy worlds, Gray loves to bake up delicious desserts—especially a good chocolate cake—and go spend far too much money at local fan conventions.
Emily Lapomardo is a queer disabled writer and educator from the Boston area. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in English from Bridgewater State University. She believes in the power of advocacy, and showing up authentically in all areas of life. In her free time, she enjoys reading literature and raging against the patriarchy.
Abby Paulette is a Communications Major at Bridgewater state and lives in Marion Massachusetts. She has worked as a staff member and runs Bridgewater State University's newspaper, The Comment, in the past, as well as written short stories in her free time. She loves to play video games, scrapbook, and indecisively put stickers on all her appliances.
Raquel Desiree DeGrasse is a writer and graduate student from Massachusetts pursuing her MA in English at Bridgewater State University. She writes about memory, family, and the way people carry their past with them. She’s drawn to stories that feel honest and emotionally vulnerable, and that find meaning in ordinary moments. When she’s not reading or writing, she enjoys baking and cake decorating, the first long warm spring day, and debriefing about life with her fiancé.
Emma Jamrin is a writer and student from the South Shore of Massachusetts. She is currently pursuing her bachelor's degree in geography at Bridgewater State University. When she is not reading, writing, or studying, she bakes with seasonal fruits, finds new ways to fall in love with New England, and is always on the lookout for a map.
Alisson Nolan is a writer, educator, and graduate student pursuing her master's degree in English at Bridgewater State University. Her poetry has been published in CALYX, including work from her poetry collection, The Autopsy of a Woman. She holds two bachelor's degrees in English and Secondary Education and currently teaches at the high school level. When she isn't teaching or studying literature, she writes poetry and fiction and is particularly drawn to dark fantasy, horror, and stories that linger somewhere between the beautiful and the unsettling.
Erin Tiernan is a writer and student from MA, currently pursuing her bachelor’s in writing from Bridgewater State University, as well as a bachelor's in business. In her free time Erin loves painting, writing stories, flea market trips, and collecting a book everywhere she travels. Her latest addition to her collection is Felicity by Mary Oliver.
