Finding Australia’s Disabled Writers

Building an inclusive community to uncover, honour, and amplify the historical contributions of Australia’s disabled writers.

Introduction to the Project

Not much is known about the contributions Australia’s disabled authors have made to our literary culture. This project aims to change that.

Finding an Author

Disabled authors tend to be missing from conversations about Australian literature, so we are creating a searchable page to help you learn more about them. Through this page you can find out who these authors are, how they have forged their careers, and how their disability shapes their creative writing practice.

Featured Author

Judith Wright

Deafness was Wright’s ‘dark source’, as she writes in her poem ‘Silence’. It was a condition which occasionally hindered her, but which also enabled her creativity and writing.

Learn more about Australia's disabled authors

To learn more about Australian disabled authors and how their impairments have shaped their lives as writers and their craft, visit our database of writers and read our case studies.

Over the next two years we will focus on historical writers, then we will concentrate on contemporary writers. Through this approach, we aim to highlight a lineage of disabled writers which has long been overlooked in Australian literature.

Follow the #AusDisLit Hashtag

#AusDisLit nonfiction from 2024 by Elena Filipczyk @ElenaFilipczyk
Wrong-doing, truth-telling, burden-bearing: The ethics of parading disability for unpromised justicehttps://t.co/O6Ogr5bSw3 https://t.co/O6Ogr5bSw3
— Dr Amanda Tink (@amandatink) September 10, 2024