Instructor: William Cagle
Wednesday, June 23, 2022 6:00pm to 8:30pm EST on Zoom
Two and a half hour VIRTUAL seminar
Limited to 15 participants
$99

Course Description:

Disability representation in speculative fiction (a broad category encompassing works of science fiction, fantasy, and horror) has long been disappointingly peripheral. And even when present, representations too often fall into common stereotypes.

When writing within realms fantastical, infinite possibilities emerge for the author. You can make cities fly, allow your pet poodle to spontaneously speak Pig Latin, immediately replace a hand severed by your character's father’s lightsaber with an identical cybernetic replacement. However, with infinite possibilities available, it becomes dangerously easy to find "solutions"" or “cures”—whether magical or technological—for a character’s physical or mental disability, as seen in the thinly veiled Star Wars example above. Doing so without consideration can be damaging and erase any positive effort made toward representation.

In this seminar, we will examine several examples of positive and effective disability representation within the space of speculative fiction and dig into what techniques the authors employed to engage the reader, depict fully rounded characters, and avoid common tropes: neither victim nor villain, neither cured nor killed. Students will have an opportunity to discuss their own experience and craft, as well as try their hand at writing prompts with an aim at writing from an unfamiliar perspective.

Who should take this class?

Anyone with an interest in speculative fiction (fantasy, sci-fi, horror, magical realism, etc.) or a desire to depict characters with disabilities within their fiction. 

Your Instructor

Will Cagle (he/him) is an author of fantasy, science fiction, and magical realism currently working on an MFA in Speculative Fiction at Sarah Lawrence College. He studied Creative Writing and Anthropology at Columbia University. He has been an amputee since the age of seven and is invested in the representation of disability across all spheres—especially within the familiar realms of the unreal and the fantastical.