Avoiding Cure Narratives and Other Harmful Disability Tropes

From magical cures to villains whose evil comes from their disability, media has long been permeated by harmful tropes about disability. We’ll talk about some of the most common disability tropes and why they’re harmful, plus how to avoid them–and harmful disability narratives more generally. Moderated by Dianna Gunn, with panelists Elise Scott, Eva Roslin, Tanya Gold, and E.M. Anderson.

This panel is part of Storycrafting Sessions: Disability in Writing, a free virtual conference hosted by Weeknight Writers and happening on May 30th. Check out our full panel listing to learn more.

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Meet our panelists

e.m. anderson (she/they) is a queer, auDHD writer and the author of The Keeper of Lonely Spirits, the upcoming The Lord of the Wood, and the currently out-of-print The Remarkable Retirement of Edna Fisher. her work has appeared in Wyldblood Press’s From the Depths: A Fantasy Anthology, SJ Whitby’s Awakenings: A Cute Mutants Anthology, and Dark Horses: The Magazine of Weird Fiction. they have two master’s degrees and a feral passion for trees, birds, pole fitness, and Uncle Iroh.

Eva Roslin (they/she) is a queer, disabled, non-binary writer and poet from Canada who writes dark fantasy and horror. They are of SWANA heritage. Their works have appeared in publications that include Nightmare Magazine, Pretend You Don’t See Her (Kandisha Press) and others. By day, they work as a curator of books.

Tanya Gold (they/them) is a book editor, French to English translator, educator, and literary omnivore.

They’ve been in publishing for over 20 years and have worked on all sorts of delicious books. These days, they pile their plate high with SFF, horror, contemporary realism, memoir, and graphic novels. They also coach editors and writers, and teach in a bunch of places.

It’s been suggested that they read too much for their own good. This might be true.

Elise Scott writes from their lived experiences of queerness, disability, neurodivergence, fat-positivity, and petting three cats with two hands. Their life has been an adventure, from facilitating equine therapy for trauma survivors to counseling at-risk youth with the aid of an inordinately large sub-woofer and beyond. They earned their BA from Mount Holyoke and their MS from Capella University. Their debut novel, a cozy mystery featuring three kittens with the ability to bend the laws of physics, who must solve a murder to save their rescuer from the human pound, is forthcoming from Crooked Lane in May 2026. Elise is a Not Quite Write Prize winner and Best-of-the-Net nominee. Their short work has appeared/is forthcoming in The Advocate, Choices: An Anthology of Reproductive Horror, The Not Quite Write Anthology 2025, The B'K, Five Minutes, Knee Brace, All Existing, and Quibble, among others.

Meet our moderator

Dianna Gunn is a fantasy and horror author known for her Moonshadow Rising Duology (completed in 2024), Choices: An Anthology of Reproductive Horror (released in 2025), and Woman of Sorrow and Blood (releasing in March 2026). You can find out more about her books at authordiannagunn.com. She is also the founder of Weeknight Writers, a social enterprise dedicated to providing support for fiction writers.