Descent

A work of fabulist fiction that centres on the lives and protection of those living in sick, disabled, and other marginalised bodies.

Arria Deepwater's Descent is a modern fairy tale exploring the vulnerability and strength that come with living in an unconventional body, especially for those living with the experience of disabilities, chronic illness, hyper-medicalisation, objectification, and 2SLGBTQIA+ identities. The reader is invited to become an observer of isolation, violation, and the magic of secret joy. Descent moves through entangled connections and dissolving boundaries between humanity and the natural world as it seeks to weave a spell of protection for those whose bodies do not conform, for whom existence is a radical act of rebellion and creativity.

Exploring boundaries of intimacy, fluidity, and grief, Deepwater brings an eco-feminist speculative twist to the growing canon of writers with marginalised identities. Deepwater considers the fractured reality of living in a queer disabled body and how we might find freedom, safety, and spiritual healing despite grief.

Descent is the winner of Omnidawn's 2022 Fabulist Fiction Contest, chosen by Michelle Ruiz Keil.