The D Franklin Defying Doomsday Award

Posted By on Oct 11, 2017 |


Today we are very excited to announce the winner of the D Franklin Defying Doomsday Award!

The D Franklin Defying Doomsday award was judged by Twelfth Planet Press publisher, Alisa Krasnostein, and Defying Doomsday editors, Tsana Dolichva and Holly Kench, and was made possible by our wonderful Pozible Patron of Diversity, D Franklin. The award grants one winner per year a cash prize of $200 in recognition of their work in disability advocacy in SFF literature. Eligible works included non-fiction or related media exploring the subject of disability in SFF literature, published in 2016.

The 2016 winner is Disability in Kidlit!

We are so excited to be able to recognise the wonderful work done at Disability in Kidlit with the D Franklin Defying Doomsday Award. Disability in Kidlit is an excellent website and resource for discussing the portrayal of disability in middle grade and young adult literature.

Disability in kidlit logo

From the Disability in Kidlit website:

Disability in Kidlit is dedicated to discussing the portrayal of disability in middle grade and young adult literature. We publish articles, reviews, interviews, and discussions examining this topic from various angles—and always from the disabled perspective.

We believe that a thoughtful portrayal of disability requires more than memorizing a list of symptoms; we hope that sharing disabled people’s thoughts on stereotypes, pet peeves, particular portrayals, and their own day-to-day experiences will help our readers learn about the realities of disability, which are often different from what we see in popular media.

We believe the team at Disability in Kidlit has provided (and continues to provide) an exceptional platform of own voices promoting, critiquing and discussing the presentation of disability in middle grade and young adult fiction, including science fiction and fantasy. For that reason, we are very pleased to name them as the winners of the D Franklin Defying Doomsday Award for 2016.

You can find out more about Disability in Kidlit at their website: http://disabilityinkidlit.com/

We also want to take this opportunity to give an honourable mention to Ada Hoffman for her “Autistic Book Party” review series. The Autistic Book Party reviews consider books from autistic perspectives (either about autistic characters or by autistic authors), including science fiction and fantasy books. In her Autistic Book Party series, Ada Hoffman discusses a range of books and reviews them with particular consideration of their portrayal of autism, from an own voice perspective. We are very pleased to be able to recognise Ada Hoffman’s work with an honourable mention to the D Franklin Defying Doomsday Award for 2016.

You can find out more about the Autistic Book Party series at Ada Hoffman’s website: http://www.ada-hoffmann.com/autistic-book-party/

Thank you so much to everyone who entered nominations for the D Franklin Defying Doomsday Award and congratulations to Disability in Kidlit and Ada Hoffman!