This week, I’ve seen several releases from authors I follow and that are now or once were sponsors. But this one caught my full attention!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Annie Chiappetta Finds a Lesson About Disability and Connection on Paratransit
“People Lessons” reflects on blindness, isolation, relationships, and the full complexity of disabled life
Media contact Annie Chiappetta • ann.m.chiappetta • 914.393.6605
October 1, 2026. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania — — Poet, author, and artist Annie Chiappetta contributes “People Lessons” to the anthology, This Too Is a Life: Essays on Disability, Humanity and Resilience, compiled and edited by Tracee Garner.
Inspired by a conversation on a paratransit bus, the essay considers how disability can intensify isolation without defining the whole person.
In the essay, Chiappetta recalls meeting an older passenger named Sol on the first night of Passover. His remarks about disability, loneliness, and a former marriage stay with her long after he leaves the bus, prompting questions about her own relationships and fears.
Chiappetta, who lost sight at age 28 because of retinitis pigmentosa, resists treating isolation as an inevitable ending. Through reflection and writing, she arrives at the message she wishes she had shared with Sol: he matters and should not give up.
“People Lessons” makes room for contradiction—the desire for solitude and connection, the vulnerability disability can expose, and the recognition that a person is always more than one identifying characteristic.
About Annie Chiappetta
Annie Chiappetta is a poet, author, and artist whose poems and stories have appeared internationally in literary journals, online publications, and print anthologies. Independently published since 2016, her six-volume collection spans poetry, creative nonfiction, short stories, and contemporary fiction. Originally from New York, she lives in Western Pennsylvania with her husband.
Connect
Website: https://www.annchiappetta.com
Facebook: Annie (Verona) Chiappetta
Instagram: annie_bird_c
Media and Reader Information
Contributor connection: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/tonya-gilchrist/7b/104/82
Anthology contact: Tracee Garner | hello | www.traceegarner.com
Publication details: October 2026, ISBN: 978-1-95710425-6 Price: $ 17.99
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