Effy Redman’s writing investigates the intersection of disability and identity. Drawing from her journey as a lesbian with Moebius Syndrome (a rare condition of facial paralysis), she writes into the experience of otherness, finding resilience beyond the shadows. Her first book—SAVING FACE—a memoir of living with physical disability—will be published by Vine Leaves Press in March 2024. Redman has work published or forthcoming in The New York Times, Vice, Ravishly, Chronogram, Berkeley Poetry Review, and Iron Horse Literary Review, among other places. She holds an MFA in Memoir from CUNY: Hunter College, where she received an Honorable Mention for the Helen Gray Cone Fellowship, and a BA in Literature/Drama from Bennington College, where she was an Ellen Knowles Harcourt Scholar and a Bennington Scholar.

Redman taught a workshop called Moebius Unmasked: Physical Theatre and Storytelling for the Moebius Syndrome Foundation, engaging workshop participants in theatre and storytelling. For several years, she served on the board of the Saratoga County Citizens Committee for Mental Health, an organization committed to fostering local mental health education. She participates in Mental Health Association in New York State’s annual Mental Health Matters Advocacy Days. After organizing a Memorial Day peace walk honoring victims of genocide and hate crimes, she traveled to Rwanda as part of an intercultural dialogue on theatre and genocide recovery. A lifelong pacifist, she has participated in numerous peace walks led by Buddhist nun Jun-San Yasuda, including a 2005 walk from upstate New York to the United Nations headquarters in New York City protesting nuclear arms. Redman advocates for positive change in her local disability community, often through writing, and believes that adversity can be transformed through art into assets. She currently volunteers for Saratoga Pride, a network of LGBTQ+ community members and allies in New York’s Capital Region.