Name: Lillie Lainoff
Genre: Historical Fiction, Retelling, Essays
Notable Works: One For All
Website: lillielainoff.com
[ID: A white woman with brown eyes, wearing a purple sweater, facing the camera. She has long curly brown hair and her cheek rests on her left hand. /end]
ID taken from author’s website.
About the Author:
“I wanted to write a story like the ones I loved as a kid, a story with astronomically high stakes and many duels, but also a story in which the main character was disabled, and not just in brief moments when that facet of her identity was somehow beneficial to the plot or the development of other characters. Chronic illness impacts every facet of your life.”
Lillie Lainoff on “One For All”, diversebooks.org, 2022
Writer, activist, poet, fencer, coach, Yale graduate- Lillie Lainoff is the author behind One For All, the own voices historical retelling of the story of The Three Musketeers, and the founder of the Disabled Kidlit Writers group on Facebook. She has written on various issues relating to disability representation in media, as well as her own experiences as a disabled teenager, adult, and athlete. She wrote her first novel when she was twelve, and her second novel when she was in high school, some time around the time she was diagnosed with POTS.
One For All, though her debut novel, is the fourth novel Lainoff finished, and is inspired by her own experiences with POTS, and her love of fencing, both of which are aspects that feature prominently in the novel. Lainoff competed as a member of Yale’s Varsity Fencing Team as an undergraduate, and, as a senior, become “one of the first physically disabled athletes to individually qualify for any NCAA championship event”. She still fences competitively today, as well as acting as a coach in the sport. In a short 2022 interview with KidLit411, Lainoff also revealed an interest in figure skating, stemming from her mother’s past work as a competitive skater. The same interview also revealed future plans for an additional 5 possible novels, including one adult novel.
List of Works:
Articles:
“Why I love Speechless, but I won’t be watching Atypical”, todaysparent.com, 2017
“I’m A Disabled Female Athlete. And I’m Here to Stay.”, yaledailynews.com, 2017
“Nearly Green”, Kalliope, 2014
Books:
Name: One For All
Published: 2022
Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux Books for Young Readers
—
Name: Window: UEA MA Prose Fiction Anthology 2021*
Published: 2021
Publisher: Egg Box Publishing
*Contributing author
—
Name: Raw Feet: DC Teen Voices*
Published: 2013
Publisher: Writopia Labs
*Contributing author
Essays:
“Chronic Illness as Creation”, diversifyyourshelves.wordpress.com, March 2022
“Taking the “Ick” Out of “Sick Lit.” A Reading List: Lillie Lainoff on Representing Chronic Illness in Literature“, lithub.com, April 2022
“Voiceless in DC”, washingtoncitypaper.com, 2019*
*Links to the article “Home Rulers: D.C. Natives Speak on Their City” in which the short essay is included.
“Hollywood has it wrong: I’m a teenager with an illness, and it’s not glamorous at all”, The Washington Post, 2014
“This essay isn’t all that original — and that’s okay”, The Washington Post, 2014
—
Magazine:
Name: Yale Daily News Magazine*
Published: 2015
Volume: XLIII
Issue: 1
* Short piece titled Cortisone Shot. Also Managing Editor.
—
Poetry:
“Mayo Clinic: Rochester, Minnesota“, yaledailynews.com, 2016
—
Research Paper:
“Disabled Motherhood Caregiving, Gatekeepers, and Reproductive Justice”, disabilityvisabilityproject.com, 2017*
*Excerpts from the paper.
—
Short Prose:
“How to Tell That Guy You’ve Been Dating, Your Boyfriend, or Your Friend (Whom You’re Actually in Love With) You Have a Disability“, losangelesreview.org, 2019
“The Swimming Pool”, yaledailynews.com, 2016
—
Additional Work:
There are several other pieces of work listed on Lainoff’s website that I could not find information on. These are:
– “The Elevator”, Scholastic Art & Writing Awards
– “Fighting Back”, Scholastic Art & Writing Awards
Archivist Comments:
I would like to extend a thank you to this author for allowing me to feature her on the archive.
Here is a link to the archive entry for One For All.
Here is a link to the author’s website with information about the book.
The Disability Book Archive 
Leave a comment