Rachel Petri, 19, of Independence was nominated and selected for her literary writing, both fiction and nonfiction, and the way she infuses disability advocacy into her work. She writes Young Adult (YA) fiction that addresses issues related to disability, through her characters and as a central theme of her work.
Rachel says of her work, “I use writing to open peoples’ eyes to the world of disability. I myself am visually impaired, and I have significant experience with families and individuals impacted by disabilities. I use both fiction and nonfiction to let people with disabilities know they are not alone and give hope, and to educate people without disabilities and promote compassion. I like to do this through fiction – compelling, realistic characters with disabilities and the way that fictional societies react to disabilities – and nonfiction – my own life story, combined with training, coursework, and knowledge borrowed from others.”
She is currently at work on two YA novels, one of which recently was close to securing literary agent representation (an enormous accomplishment for any writer). One novel, “Healer’s Scars” is set in a dystopian world, which feels a bit like “The Giver” meets “The Hunger Games.” In this world, only able-bodied individuals are selected for prestigious jobs on Choosing Day and those with disabilities are left to fend for themselves. But when the main character decides to mentor a physically disabled fourteen-year-old, the community is forced to reckon with their age-old beliefs about disability.
The second novel she is working on is science fiction, where humanity has been forced to flee earth and live on spaceships. On one such ship, a teenage main character becomes the caretaker for a young child who has kidney disease and other developmental problems.
