Runalong The Short Shelves - Fiyah Issue 31

Price - $3.99 via https://fiyahlitmag.com/issues/issue-31-disability/

For this week I look at Fiyah’s summer magazine which is focused on stories about those with some form of disability and looking to challenge the stereotypes that many stories have delivered.

The first story is ‘Demon Slayer’ by Terna Abu and it’s a really strong enjoyable opening about a village community terrorised by demons after a sorcerer’s death. But the village is disappointed to find the alleged demon slayer is just a man with dwarfism. As well as a reminder not to underestimate people with disabilities it’s about how there are other forms of strength not just the physical.

My favourite but be warned has strong body horror in it is ‘Worms Fill My Mouth’ by F Kirk which imagines a global pandemic where strange worms get into human bodies and among the symptoms create rashes and random teeth. For most people it’s just an illness done in a few days but some have a long-lasting condition. We follow Isaac who has had this for years and the impact on his life is understandably traumatic. Kirk has created a powerful story to remind readers that a chronic condition is overpowering, limits lives and makes day to day existence extremely hard and Isaac is having a hard day battling pain and also a mysterious shadowy form known as The Meat. It isn’t a wave problems away ending and sometimes it’s getting out the house can be a victory to take one day at a time. Very impressive.

Then we get an intriguing family mystery in ‘The Tomb of the Forgotten Soldier’ by Mwanabibi Sikamo that starts in 2032 and a young woman troubled by strange dreams after the death of her mother. It’s an impressive story within stories tale that explore the hidden history of Zambia in WW2, museums taking objects without permission and also with a key character being deaf how those with disabilities are often treated harshly. It comes together really well in the storytelling.

I’m slightly conflicted about ‘Way Up In De Middle of De Air’ by Jamie Roballo. It’s a lovely piece of storytelling as a young Black woman listens to her father tell her about a summer night in 1833 when the stars fell en mass. But this meteor shower has a lasting impact. The way the story within a story come to life is beautifully told but the magazine’s introduction says they want to avoid stereotypes and a blind person being given a gift to see other things and potentially send those images to others slightly feels off. The grandfather’s blindness is not caused by the events of the story but it doesn’t quite land in the issue as much as the other stories did for me yet I really enjoyed reading it.

We also get poetry in the form of ‘Giant Robot and His Person’ by Akua Lezli Hope which imagines a paraplegic woman meeting the aforementioned giant robot and having a huge space adventure and friendship while ‘we stim to the moment’ which talks about how diagnosis is still not the person. Finally in ‘Go Body Go!’ By Taylor Mckinnon about pushing your body on to see wonders even when it doesn’t want to.

A really enjoyable issue!