Share your raw, authentic stories about life with disability or chronic illness
Uncomfortable Revolution™ is looking for totally awkward personal stories and anecdotes about chronic illness and disability. You may submit blogposts, photo essays, cartoons, animations, illustrations, videos, and audio.
Pitch us ideas for raw, authentic stories about life with disability or any health condition: from cancer, HIV/AIDS, and heart disease; mental illness, addiction or eating disorders; to MS and other mobility-affecting illnesses.
Our tone is humorous, authentic, and a bit quirky. We are never preachy.
We define "chronic illness" as any physical or psychological health condition that is long-term and affects your everyday life. We define "disability" as a mismatched interaction between features of a person’s body and features of the society in which they live.
If you had the flu that one time, this isn't for you.
What we're NOT looking for:
- Poetry
- Medical/Clinical/Pharmaceutical/Nutritional advice.
- Undercover promo for your business or service
- Subject matter that does not fit the express theme of awkward conversations/moments that arise from chronic illness or disability
- Subject matter that (whether intentionally or not) discriminates against an entire category of people (ethnicity, gender, political persuasion, religion, sexual identity etc.)
- Pieces that require significant editing or re-writes
- Anything that's not written in English. This is really our failure because we are monoglots. :(
What we want you to submit:
- Authentic, true, raw stories of uncomfortable moments or conversations that have come up because of chronic illness or disability: whether you are the one diagnosed, or someone you know is
- Stories could be about: conversations you did have; conversations you never got the chance to have; a gifting experience gone wrong; dating and sex: what's it really like?; what's it like at work, or life in general? Tell us the things you never get to talk about, but are dying to
- Creative fiction works about chronic illness and/or disability
- Stories that make us laugh, shout, scream, die slowly inside, cry, or want to hit somebody. Make us feel what you feel
- Well-written/produced content that is ready-to-publish (i.e. typo-free) that you are the author of, or have permission to submit
- Written pieces in the range of 500-2,500 words
- Include a bio of no more than 100 words written in the third person, plus links to your social media profiles (Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn) and a portrait photo.
- We are currently unable to pay for submissions for personal stories.
- We commit ourselves to promotion of your work, even if published elsewhere, on our website and social media platforms.
- Note: if you are using a pseudonym please enter the pseudonym in the name field, and clearly state in the "about author" section that your name is a pseudonym.
So, get it off your chest! Send us your story idea by filling out the form below.