On July 15, 2023, a stray bullet destroyed my left eye and catapulted me into an incredible community. As I wrestled with my identity and physical appearance and how the world saw me, I quickly found out that I was not alone—I’d soon had made dozens of one-eyed friends who welcomed me with open arms and generous stories.
These friendships, conversations, and stories helped me as I tried to understand what I was going through, and who I was becoming.
I’m a writer, so it was inevitable that I would process my eye loss journey through the written word. Sharing my story, both publicly and in private essays, was healing. Now, I want to create a space for others to share their stories—and a resource for those who are struggling through their own eye loss journeys.
I want your stories!
This is a call for submissions for an essay collection on the subject of eye loss, monocular vision, and identity. On the way we see the world, and how it sees us. On shifting identity, finding internal truths, and choosing how we show up every day.
I already know these essays will be amazing. They’ll be poignant. They’ll be personal. They’ll be funny AF (gotta find the laughter, right?).
They’ll capture the light and the dark, the joy and the grief, the love and the loss.
But this isn’t a normal literary anthology.
It’s not just for people who consider themselves great writers.
In my day job, I work as a story coach, book coach, and ghostwriter—helping others tap into, share, and write their stories is my profession. So if you have a story to tell but you don’t know how to write it, that’s totally fine. We’re going to work on this together.
Here’s how that looks.
—> Coaching
I am happy to offer developmental editing and coaching free of charge to anyone submitting an essay. If you want to workshop a raw draft with me, I got you.
—> Storytelling Workshops
I’ll be holding several free virtual storytelling workshops specifically for members of the one eye community. Both for people who are interested in writing an essay to submit to this collection, and those who just want to learn how to tell their story in a way that’s healing while also making an impact in the world.
—> Ghostwriting
Finally, if you’d rather just hire me to ghostwrite your story, I’m offering a discounted rate for this project. Let’s talk.
If you’re interested in participating in this project, drop an email to submissions@story-rebel.com, or DM me on Instagram @story_rebel. I don’t know how many slots I’ll have for essays in the final collection, so I can’t guarantee anyone publication. But I can guarantee that the process of writing your own essay will be good for the soul!
(I’ll share publication details, timelines, payment, etc when I know more. But think Spring 2026 for a submission deadline. For now, I just want to get everyone’s creative gears turning and start organizing workshops for interested folks.)