Name: Eliza Hull
Genre: Anthologies, Non-Fiction, Picture Books
Notable Works: We’ve Got This
Website: elizahull.com
[ID: Photograph of a white woman sitting on large rocks outside. She has short bobbed, wavy brown hair. She is wearing an open denim shirt over a black t-shirt and has a necklace with a large circular pendant around her neck. /end]
About the Author:
Eliza Hull is an award-winning Australian based singer, songwriter, author, audio producer and disability advocate. She is a mother to two children and lives with Charcot-Marie-Tooth Syndrome, a condition affecting the muscles and peripheral nervous system, resulting in progressive muscle weakness and numbness. Hull has been very open about both her disability and her parenting journey, often reflecting on the difficulties of being a parent with a disability, and the social perception of her being a disabled parent, as well as how being a parent has helped her better accept herself as a disabled individual.
Across 2018, Hull acted as a producer for the ABC radio series “We’ve Got This”, which detailed stories of various parents of all backgrounds, who all lived with disabilities. This series would go on to be adapted into a book of the same name, published in 2022 under Black Inc. Books. An international edition of the book, including additional stories from disabled parents in the UK, US and Canada, was published in 2023 under Scribe Publications. Along with children’s author Sally Rippin, Hull also co-created a children’s picture book titled Come Over to My House. In an interview with Freya Bennet (of Ramona Magazine) regarding the book, Hull stated her desire to “create a book that portrayed families with disability in an authentic, bright and colourful way”, as well as revealing plans to hopefully release a second childrens book with Rippin in 2024.
As well as this work, Hull has also discussed and advocated for greater disability accessibility in the music scene. She spoke at the Change music conference regarding issues of disability access for musicians in the industry, and, in 2020, co-curated the online mini-music festival Accessable All Areas, an Isol-Aid event, which featured music by various disabled artists.
Follow this link to an interview that Eliza gave ABC radio in March 2022. The recording is 53 minutes long, and there is a transcript. In it, she discusses her music career- her love for music, her beginnings, etc.- and her feelings towards her disability, discussing how they have changed since being diagnosed at the age of 5.
List of Works:
Books:
Name: We’ve Got This: Stories by Disabled Parents*
Published: 2022
Publisher: Black Inc Books
*Adapted from an ABC radio series in Australia.
Name: We’ve Got This: Essays by Disabled Parents*
Published: 2023
Publisher: Scribe Publications
*International edition. Includes additional stories by parents in the UK, US and Canada.
Name: Come Over to My House*
Published: 2022
Publisher: Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing
*Co-authored with Sally Rippin. Illustrated by Daniel Gray-Barnett.
Name: Growing Up Disabled in Australia*
Published: 2021
Publisher: Black Inc. Books
* Contributing author. Edited by Carly Findlay.
Discography:
Albums–
Dawn– 2012
- Don’t Know it Yet
- Without Words– Also released as a single
- Saturation
- On My Mind
- Hold On
- Falling
- Lately
The Ghosts You Never Catch– 2013
- Head Above Water-Intro
- Echoes- Also released as a single
- Christopher
- Skin
- Ready For The Fall
- Northern Lights
- Ghosts
The Bones of Us- 2015
- Walk Away
- Caught– Also released as a single, 2014
- Christopher
- Used To– Also released as a single, 2014
- Skeleton
- My Army
- Satelite
- Dreamer
- Bella Lou
- Head Above Water
How We Disappeared– 2018
- Rewind– Also released as a single
- Going Soon– Also released as a single
- Valentine
- Hard Way– Also released as a single
- How Do I Get Back To You
Here They Come- 2023
- Stay
- Here They Come
- Running Underwater- Also released as a single
- Island– Also released as a single
- Lilac Dreams
Archivist Comments:
I would like to extend a massive thank you to this author for allowing me to feature her on the archive!
Running Underwater is such a good song. I listened to Hull’s entire available discography while doing this entry; it’s not normally the type of music I’m into but something about it is just very satisfying. I’m looking forward to seeing what she brings out in the future!
I remember I was quite excited when I first came across We’ve Got This. My mother used to tell me this story of when I was a baby and she was pushing me down the street in my pram- some woman pulled her kid away and told them not to talk to the “monster”, referring to my mother just because of the way she walked. I think it served as first part of the foundation behind my desire to really give more notice to disability representation in media, and when I got older it made me realise how much people let my mother’s disability influence their thoughts about her parenting.
So I really appreciate how open Hull and the parents in the We’ve Got This series are about their experiences; it reinforces to disabled parents that they do indeed have a community, and really forces recognition of an area of both parenting and life that people are often ignorant to. I think it’s such a valuable resource to have out there.
The Disability Book Archive 
Leave a comment