“Being disabled my entire life, I have yet to experience the kind of loss that MM must feel. To me, disability is the norm.”
Read More"I have always loved the way [Kenny Fries's} writing links the events of his own life with questions raised by the narratives of history. I had much I wanted to ask him about after reading In the Province of the Gods."
Read More"What makes a life worth living? Do looks, ability, and talent make your life more valuable than someone else's? Kenny Fries has made it his life’s work to understand just that."
Read More"For those of us who live with disabilities, when we think of access we mostly think of physical access: ramps, lifts, and technological aides. But cultural access is just as essential as physical access to an inclusive society."
Read More"Ultimately, Fries wrote 27 drafts, but it was not until the 23rd that the book finally found its form. . . . The finished book is less about disability in Japan than a meditation on how different cultures deal with impermanence and mortality."
Read MorePassport Magazine calls In the Province of the Gods "a deeply resonant memoir that inspires gratitude in both writer and reader."
Read MoreFavorite book when you were a child? Book that changed your life? Kenny answers these and other questions.
Read MoreWatch and listen to two prominent writers with disabilities talk about disability, the body, Japan, and change.
Read More"Fries opens himself up to the page sharing his secrets and his quest to understand Japan, disability, and more importantly his place in the world."
Read MoreElizabeth Foulke asks Kenny: "What continues to be overlooked in Western culture due to our lack of language for, or a lack of narratives that incorporate the experience of people with disabilities?
Read MoreWell-known disability rights activist and Ford Foundation Fellow Judy Heumann talks with Kenny about In the Province of the Gods, his article in The New York Times, and the importance of mentorship.
Read MoreA Plus Book Club Chooses In the Province of the Gods!
Read More"I am disabled, gay, and Jewish. A former boyfriend has called me The Nazi Trifecta."
Read More"Was Hearn’s attraction to strange things because he had one eye? Did he feel comfortable in Japan because being a foreigner overshadowed his physical difference?"
Read MoreTrenton Straube at POZ calls In the Province of the Gods a "mesmerizing memoir."
Read More" . . . my writing works against the literary morés, standards, culture, and legacies. As a disabled writer, who is also gay and Jewish, I often write at the intersection of these identities."
Read More"A finely honed philosophical and autobiographical reflection on transcendence and self-acceptance."
Read More"In Tanizaki’s story we are shown how disability can, in certain contexts, be advantageous, as well as how the nondisabled use disability for their own purposes."
Read More"As a disabled writer, I’m wary of using a medical marker to define an era, because HIV/AIDS is a sociopolitical issue as well as a medical one."
Read More"If ever I needed the presence of the gods, now is the time. . . . Ever since finding out the test results in Dr. Shay’s office, I have felt, for what seems like the first time, that my life has been split—now there is a before and an after."
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