Accessible Words

Though Alison Piepmeier was best known as a feminist literary critic with a strong focus on disability, academic writing was insufficient to her range, creativity, and questing mind. Her informal writing—op-eds, articles, blogs—displayed something else, an essayist’s skill with metaphor and narrative, a taste for stylistic experiment, and a drive to connect with readers outside the academy. This writing reached its peak in Alison’s blog Every Little Thing, which ran from 2013 to 2016 and in which she dealt with the core topics of this book: disability, illness, and motherhood. In this chapter, George Estreich looks at the blog and follows its transformation as Alison herself is transformed by her evolving serious health issues.