Drowning in a puddle

The anxiety of not being enough

Featured in

Buy $27.99
  • Published 20240806
  • ISBN: 978-1-922212-98-6 
  • Extent: 216pp
  • Paperback, ePUB, PDF

‘I DON’T THINK I can enter that,’ mumbles the young woman. She’s sitting at a round desk with seven other people and I’m standing at the front of the room, cosplaying as someone who knows what they’re doing. I’ve been invited to facilitate this workshop for young disabled writers – to inspire them and share my experiences as an emerging writer.

‘I don’t want to take an opportunity away from someone who needs it more,’ the woman continues. ‘I just wouldn’t be seen as disabled enough. Thank you for telling me, though.’

Already a subscriber? Sign in here

If you are an educator or student wishing to access content for study purposes please contact us at griffithreview@griffith.edu.au

Share article

Tweet
Share
Share
Pin
0 Shares

Subscribe to great writing

Access starts at just $6 per month. Print and digital options to suit every budget!

Learn more

More from author

A fair game for all

GR OnlineWhen a disabled writing student tells me they won’t submit their work for publication because they fear being rejected for not being enough, I always find myself wishing that the publishing industry had the time and empathy to reply more thoroughly to these marginalised voices.

More from this edition

Finding the right phenotype

Non-fictionAs a recently diagnosed transgender person, I was already part of a highly online, over-educated and underemployed cohort, routinely blamed for stifling free speech as well as both maintaining the gender binary and destroying it. The alt-right discourse was already aflame, decrying the social scourge of everyone wanting to be seen as a ‘special snowflake’ and the creeping ‘politics of victimhood’. Did I really need to inhabit a second suspect identity? Did I need another personal attribute I felt deeply ambivalent about to become a public part of my persona?

The Juansons

FictionIn the morning, she walks over to the Johnsons’ place and knocks on the door. Nothing. She calls the police, but once the officer on the phone understands that Norma is not the boy’s kin, he brushes her off. She makes coffee and goes into the living room and turns on CNN. A banner across the top of the screen reads: INSTANT E-DEPORTATIONS ACROSS US. 

Uninsurable nation 

Non-fiction AS I DRIVE into the small Victorian riverside town of Rochester, a banner tied to a metal fence greets me on the main road....

Stay up to date with the latest, news, articles and special offers from Griffith Review.