Jay Hardwig, Author
Jay Hardwig has taught blind and visually impaired students for more than 20 years. To satisfy one of those students who was a voracious reader, Hardwig went looking for books with protagonists who have disabilities and didn’t find many, or found ones that did not portray believable characters. “To put it another way,” Hardwig says, “so often in books featuring characters with disabilities, the narrative purpose of those characters is to motivate others to change and grow. I wanted to explore what would happen if it was the kid with the disability who needed to do some changing and growing herself. Like all kids do.”
Just Maria is his debut novel and though he wrote it with younger readers in mind, he has been surprised by its popularity among adults as well. “Many of them have told me that the humor in the book keeps it approachable;” he says, “they don’t feel preached to, or taught to, but rather that they’ve been invited to share in a story, and learn about a life.”
It is his hope that all readers come away with a more nuanced understanding of what it’s like to live with blindness, but he also wants readers to find themselves in the vivacious Maria. “Hopefully they will identify with her competing motivations and conflicting feelings, her struggle to do the right thing, and understand once again that what makes us the same is greater than what makes us different,” he says. “Plus, the world needs more weird.”
Just Maria, January, 2022, fiction, hardcover $26.95, paperback $15.95, by Jay Hardwig, and published by Regal House Publishing, Raleigh, NC. Find the book at regional bookstores. To learn more, visit JayHardwig.com.
