Talk with Brandy Schillace – Authors with Disabilities and Chronic Illnesses Network Meeting

Join us for our next online meet-up on Thursday 22 October from 2pm.

This month we will be joined by Brandy Schillace (skil-AH-chay) PhD. Brandy is a writer, historian, and social justice advocate. Her work covers medical humanities, creative writing, disability, neurodivergence, and representation. An award-winning novelist and former academic, Brandy writes and speaks about disability, visibility, and inclusion.

Her last two mystery novels feature neurodivergent characters with hidden disabilities and LGBTQ characters; she has been doing a lot of work discussing what it’s like both to support representation as an author while also living with chronic illness and disability. She leads an initiative called Path to Publication where she served as a developmental editor for disabled and minority authors, through the BMJ.

Formerly an editor for Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, a medical anthropology journal and BMJ’s Medical Humanities, where she focused on disability studies, Brandy works as a freelance journalist as well as a writer of nonfiction and fiction. Brandy has written about death and dying, scientific invention, Cold War medicine, bioethics, organ transplant, and forensics. In Mr. Humble and Dr. Butcher, she provided an extensive history of brain surgery and neuroscience. Her most recent nonfiction, The Intermediaries, tells the forgotten, daring history of trans activists, gender affirming surgeries, and the fight for LGBTQ rights in the shadow of the Third Reich. The book was longlisted for the 2025 National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, shortlisted for the Triangle Awards, and a Kirkus Reviews and Boston Globe Best Book of the Year. In fiction, Brandy is author of The Framed Women of Ardemore House, winner of the Royden B. Davis award, and The Dead Come to Stay, mystery novels featuring a neurodivergent protagonist.

Brandy has bylines at WSJ, Scientific American, Globe and Mail, HuffPo, WIRED, Boston Globe, and UNDARK. She is host of Unsolved Mysteries of Medicine (2025) and the popular YouTube livestream and podcast, Peculiar Book Club, featuring bestselling authors of unusual nonfiction, from Lindsey Fitzharris and Mary Roach to Ed Yong and Deborah Blum. It is in its seventh season.  She has appeared on Mysteries at the Museum with Don Wildman, The Unbelievable with Dan Akroyd, Secrets Declassified with David Duchovny, and Histories Greatest Mysteries with Laurence Fishburne. Brandy gives regular keynotes and participates in other speaking events, and is a tireless advocate for social justice, disability and LGBTQ+ representation.

Brandy is a member of the  Writer’s Guild of America, DC Science Writers Association, and National Association of Science Writers in the United States. In the UK, she is a member of the Crime Writers Association, where she co-convenes the nonfiction chapter, and the Society of Authors. Brandy is an elected fellow of the Royal Historical Society. In spring of 2026, Brandy was a visiting scholar to the University of Manchester, where we gave two talks and a workshop about autism, disability, and neurodivergence in conjunction with the Center for History, Science, Technology and Medicine and the Autism Center.

About the Authors with Disabilities and Chronic Illnesses Network 

The Authors with Disabilities and Chronic Illnesses network is a member-led peer support network aims to break feelings of isolation by connecting authors facing common experiences, in an online community that offers continuing professional and personal support.

We run monthly get-togethers using Zoom, where you can chat informally online with others. Depending on your computer or device, you can take part either using audio or video. Please let us know if you have any specific needs that will help you take part.

Our primary aim is to offer a friendly and supportive space where you can feel safe to ask questions, share experiences, offer advice, and make new connections. For more information, visit our Network page here.

Our online meet-ups are free to attend for ADCI Network members only. To join us, click the Going button below and enter your details in the RSVP form. We’ll send you an email with a link to join us on Zoom.

If the confirmation email doesn’t arrive in your inbox, please check your junk mail folder! 

If you have any access questions please contact us at disabledauthors@gmail.com