Falling for Myself

In this searing and seriously funny memoir, Dorothy Ellen Palmer falls down, a lot, and spends a lifetime learning to appreciate her disability. Born with two very different, very tiny feet, she was adopted as a toddler by an already wounded 1950s family. From childhood surgeries to decades as a feminist teacher, mom, improv coach and unionist, she tried to hide being different. But now, standing proud with her walker, she’s sharing her journey. Navigating abandonment, abuse and ableism, she finds her birth parents and a new chosen family in the disability community.

AUTHOR

Dorothy Ellen Palmer

Dorothy Ellen Palmer is a mom of two, a binge knitter, a former English/Drama teacher, improv coach and union activist, now a disabled senior writer and disability activist. Her novel, When Fenelon Falls, (Coach House) and adoption-disability memoir, Falling for Myself, (Wolsak and Wynn), were acclaimed by The Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, and Quill & Quire. She is the winner of the 2020 Helen Henderson Award for disability journalism, serves on FOLD’s Accessibility Advisory Committee, and has appeared at FOLD, GritLIT, WOTS, The Next Chapter, The Eh List, and CBC Radio. She can always be found tweeting @depalm.