Giving Thanks
We wouldn’t be in the position we are without the early support of some folks who believed in Sick Stories from the beginning. Building a community takes a community. We’re especially grateful to:
Business In The Streets for funding our first workshops
ArtReach for funding My Body, My Story in 2023 and 2024
Sam Anis, Vincy Lim, and Harmeet Rehal for embracing Sick Stories beginnings and co-facilitating My Body, My Story
Isabella Iannetta and Kit Lister for helping to bring to life our first ever in-person event
And Clau Souza, for her beautiful design skills with our logo
A little note…
Even though we are disability-led and focused, Sick Stories is not a charity. Far too many disabled people are taken advantage of physically, emotionally, and financially in the non-profit sector. We do however understand that being disabled puts individuals at a much higher risk of being low-income.
We donate 10% of our net profits monthly to local mutual aid fundraisers. This support directly and positively impacts community members experiencing the highest needs in the current moment, and may save someone from homelessness or going without food.
Want to support us in this mission to give back? Purchase books from us, purchase our own publications, upgrade your newsletter subscription to paid, or opt to pay more than a suggested rate for a workshop.
We thank you for being here with us.
Who Are We?
Sick Stories exists to bring literary visibility to the 25% of people globally estimated to live with a disability.
Founded by Sophie Lyons, an invisibly disabled white, queer writer and lifelong reader, we had our beginnings in 2021 as a project to review and celebrate books with disability representation. We quickly noticed the vast underrepresentation within the publishing industry of disabled, chronically ill, and mentally ill voices. What was out there was often filled with harmful tropes or heartwarming personal stories of overcoming adversaries.
In 2023 we switched to running writing workshops and online spaces for community members to connect, create, and share stories. In 2025, after expanding our services to micro-publishing original writing, we were still feeling the limits of our impact in a deeply troubling world. We went back to our roots of cheering on books, this time from a bookseller’s perspective.
Sick Stories honours and celebrates the different ways in which individual conditions and identities can intersect. We strive to hold ourselves and others accountable in remaining an anti-ableist, anti-racist, pro 2SLGBTQIA+ space who celebrates intersectionality.
We operate from Tkaronto/Toronto, Turtle Island (Canada), on the ancestral lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat people, plus more whose names have been lost to time and colonization.
We are always open to conversations surrounding how we can make our website and content more accessible and representative of our world. If you have suggestions, please get in touch for a chat.