Tori Pearmain

Hi! I’m Tori Pearmain, a disabled writer based in London.

My writing explores themes such as chronic illness, mental health, the body, empathy, the value of care, and the environment. In my early twenties, six months after deciding I wanted to take my writing hobby seriously, I became chronically ill and had to make a lot of changes to my life in order to start writing again. A lot of my work touches on chronic pain and chronic fatigue. These are two of the most impactful symptoms of my illnesses which are endometriosis and hypothyroidism.

I am chronicling my journey of writing and submitting my work for publication on this blog. It probably looks a little different to the advice that many authors give. I’ve found that having an energy-limiting health condition means a lot of popular advice, like writing every day, doesn’t work for me. I’m finding different ways to make writing part of my life and would love to see more disabled authors have the chance to make their voices heard.

For those of you reading this who are on your own health journeys, I hope my writing shows you that you’re not alone in finding a way to move forward with your life. Writing has helped me with communicating my health needs, managing my mental health, and becoming more open about my disability. I hope it might help others too.

The road to publication has its ups and downs, so in the quieter months, I like to post short reviews of books by disabled authors to give a much-needed boost to work that often gets left by the wayside by big publishers and their marketing budgets. You can also see some of my shorter poems on Instagram @toripearmain.

Thank you for reading! If you’d like to explore my published work, head over to the Publications page.

If you’d like to get in touch about my work or an opportunity, such as a commission, collaboration, or event, contact me via email at toripearmain[at]gmail.com. I am particularly open to my work being used to widen awareness and understanding of endometriosis. If this is what you’re looking for, please get in touch.

A Note on Terminology:

I publish reviews of books by disabled authors on this blog. I use the term disabled in a broad sense, including authors who are physically disabled, chronically ill, have mental illness, have a learning disability, are neurodivergent, blind, and/or D/deaf. “Disabled” may not be a term the author uses, but if they fall into any of these categories and are open about their health in some of their published work, then they are in the group of voices that I would like to highlight here.