From: Carrie Jones <cciciotte>
Date: Thu, 5 Oct 2006 14:08:23 -0400

My thesis at Vermont College's MFA Program in Writing for Children and Young Adults focused on the portrayal of people with epilepsy in children's books and how often the protagonist's development focuses on negative epilepsy stereotypes. It was eye-opening and disappointing.

Because of that research I made my own protagonist have epilepsy, but it is not her defining characteristic, nor is it part of her character development. That book, TIPS ON HAVING A GAY (ex) BOYFRIEND, will come out in May 2007.

It is important as authors, librarians, and as storytellers, that we help rid the world of that 3,000 years of ignorance, and give children good, compelling stories that have something to do with seizures, but have just as much to do with character, plot, emotion, and moving beyond the stereotypes.

In a May 2005 speech in Nashua, N.H. writer M.T. Anderson said, "This is what we must do as writers. We must build our home from nothing. We must rise every morning, and we must sing the world into existence, star by star, peak by peak, child by child. We must begin in darkness, and end in dawn."

Anderson's words can be used for authors dealing with epilepsy themes and characters as well as other disabilities. It is only when we recreate a world without our original preconceived stereotypes and bigotries that we can sing good, viable and true stories into existence, and do it as Anderson says, "star by star, peak by peak, child by child."

Thank you so much for caring enough to have this discussion. It is so important.

-Carrie Jones
Received on Thu 05 Oct 2006 01:08:23 PM CDT