Jefferson Humanities Forum: Annie Liontas

After suffering multiple concussions in her thirties, Annie Liontas shares what it means to be one of the “walking wounded” in Sex with a Brain Injury. Facing their fear, their rage, their physical suffering, and the effects of head trauma on their marriage and other relationships, Liontas is forced to reckon with their own queer mother’s battle with addiction and finds echoes in their pain. Liontas weaves history, philosophy, and personal accounts to interrogate and expand representations of mental health, ability, and disability—particularly in relation to women and the LGBT community. They uncover the surprising legacy of brain injury, examining its role in culture, the criminal justice system, and through historical figures like Henry VIII and Harriet Tubman. The hidden gift of injury, Liontas writes, is the ability to connect with others.

Annie Liontas is the genderqueer author of the crip-queer memoir Sex with a Brain Injury: On Concussion and Recovery, which won ALA's 2025 Stonewall Award for Nonfiction and was featured on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. Their debut novel, Let Me Explain You, was selected as a New York Times Editors Choice in 2015 and was selected by the ABA as an Indies Introduce debut and Indies Next title. They co-host the podcast LitFriends and live in Philadelphia with their wife, dog, and Email the rabbit.

During 2025-2026, the Jefferson Humanities Forum hosts multidisciplinary scholars and thinkers to investigate the theme of Trust.

Co-presented by Jefferson Humanities & Health, the Philadelphia University Honors Institute at Thomas Jefferson University and the College of Humanities & Sciences.

Learn more: Jefferson.edu/Humanities

Questions? Contact Kirsten Bowen, Humanities Program Coordinator, at [email protected].

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