The Little Not-So-Innocent Cripple Girl

An interview with author Peggy Munson

I’ve been thinking about disability in some new ways lately — especially the isolation and loneliness.

My thoughts led me back to my friend and author Peggy Munson, whose erotic short story, “Fairgrounds”— which I published in 2006.

Peggy has lived with ME/CFS for over 30 years; a long hauler.

But for much longer than that, she has been the most perceptive and searing poets, writers, I’ve known. Below, is a little bit of that sear — and an interview.

I think you would love getting to know her.

Peggy's story is about a group of young perverts who work at the circus. Their world is informed by lifelong genderfuck and the profound physical disabilities of a couple of the main characters.

This is not one of those postmodern Canadian sideshows," Daddy Billy]warned, "with adorable, tumbling twins. The inbreeding here makes them ugly and mean. So stay close to Daddy and stay away from the Octopus Man.

The protagonist is a queer femme with serious hungers, who gets a tour of the seamy side of the Midway by her Daddy dyke lover— and eventually hooks up with a crippled “boi” who works the fairgrounds:

Daddy stopped to buy me funnel cakes so I’d get powdered sugar on my hands and then he licked it off while passers-by clucked meddling tongues.

"I need it Daddy, please," I whispered in his ear.