Diabetes in Fiction

Too often, science fiction and fantasy stories erase—or cure—characters with disabilities. Soul Jar , edited by author and bookstore owner Annie Carl, features thirty-one stories by disabled authors, imagining such wonders as a shapeshifter on a first date, skin that sprouts orchid buds, and a cereal-box demon. An insulin pump diverts an undead mob. An autistic teen sets out to discover the local cranberry bog’s sinister secret. A pizza delivery on Mars goes wrong. This thrillingly peculiar collection sparkles with humor, heart, and insight, all within the context of disability representation. Stories with diabetic representation: “Ziabetes” by Lily Jurich and “A Balanced Breakfast” by Eirik Gumeny

These stories, all set in nearby towns in the Alabama Black Belt a swath of dark soil that runs west to east through the central part of the state explore the history, culture, and human spirit of the people who live there, and those that came before them and were shaped by the same rich and corrupted geography. In the title story, a teenage girl wants desperately to escape her self-destructive mother and comes to realize the hay-bale art she can see from their house may hold a key to her future, if she can divine it. The novella ‘Playing War’ tells the story of a wife who’s just learned the hunting accident her husband was involved in years earlier was not exactly an accident. ‘Haints at Noon,’ written in the form of a 1930s slave narrative, tells the story of a couple trying to endure that ‘peculiar institution.’ The past and present are joined here in stories that demonstrate the never-ending struggle for understanding and connection.