Why Sick Stories?

We asked ourselves the same question before founding. The truth is, Sophie (Sick Stories’ founder) never saw themselves as a business owner, but traditional writing workshops felt exclusionary and unwelcoming to safely explore and hold topics of disability and marginalization. The disability community is thriving online but there are few spaces to gather and share stories, something that’s fundamental in building connections, ideas, dreams, and change.

Are the workshops online or in-person?

Sick Stories original workshops are mostly online. We want to honour the ways in which being online has opened up the world for disabled folks during the pandemic. The ways in which people from different parts of the world can gather together and share the same ideas.

That being said, we are always open to collaborating with other organizations to safely hold in-person workshops, and are dreaming up ways of hosting hybrid readings.

What if I get sick for the duration of a workshop?

We totally get it. Disability and chronic illness waits until the best/worst moments to flare. Doctors wait until the moment you’ve got something planned to call, etc. If you’re signed up for a workshop or reading and cannot make it, please don’t panic. Missing one or two workshops in a small group is fine, but if we get deeper into the process and you cannot commit, know all our workshops are deferrable until a time that works better. If you need to defer and there’s no comparable workshop available, we’ll offer a full refund. Please think carefully if you have the capacity before signing up for a live workshop series.

I want to take a workshop but can’t financially afford it.

Ugh. Capitalism sucks. Unfortunately, we do need to charge for our workshops to survive in the system ourselves. We’re not a charity and we don’t plan to become one. However, we do have a bursary system available. Fill out your information here and we’ll be in touch when there are discounts, or free spaces available. These will initially be on a first-come-first-serve basis.

The disability community is much more likely to experience low income and poverty than the general public. Therefore we will not ask you to identify any reasons for needing a bursary. We do encourage you to question though, do you or your family have access to money? What % of your income would be used to attend a workshop? In which ways have you been more financially privileged than others in life? If you were unable to get a bursary, is there another way for you to access a Sick Stories writing workshop?