Allyson Wierenga is an English PhD candidate. Broadly, Allyson’s research focuses on intersections between the fields of children’s literature, health humanities, and disability studies. She is especially interested in analyzing how illnesses and disabilities are constructed in contemporary children’s literature. Allyson was the 2022 graduate recipient of the Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association’s Daniel Walden Prize. In addition to her doctoral studies, Allyson is a consultant at TAMU’s University Writing Center. She earned her MA in English from Case Western Reserve University (May 2021) and her BA in English Literature and Writing from Calvin University (Dec. 2018).

“The Edwardian Children’s Fairy: ‘The Sums That Came Right’ (Nesbit, 1901),” forthcoming in Fairies: A Companion, edited by Peter Lang, Oxford.

“Standing Out, Not Sticking Out: ‘Curing’ Abnormal Childhood in Rob Harrell’s Wink,” in New Directions in Childhood Studies: Innocence, Trauma, and Agency in the Twenty-First Century, Lexington Books, 2024.

“‘How Were You Cured if None of the Others Were?’: Transcending Bodies in The Two Princesses of Bamarre and the COVID-19 Pandemic,” in Volume 8, Issue 2 of Response | The Journal of Popular and American Culture.