Author & Advocate

A woman with light skin and chin length blond hair wears a dark red jacket and a black shirt

Jeneva & her son Rob volunteer for several health care & disability rights groups. They are members of Little Lobbyists, a family-led organization advocating for the health care needs of children with complex medical needs and disabilities; Jeneva is the Little Lobbyists blog manager. Jeneva serves on the Montgomery County, Maryland, Commission on People with Disabilities. She also volunteers for the Rare Action Network, part of the National Organization for Rare Disorders. Both she & Rob are members of the Self-Directed Advocacy Network (SDAN). Jeneva & Rob have delivered remarks at U.S. Senate press conferences, at health care rallies & have testified before the Maryland General Assembly. 

Photo: Rah Foard

Photo: Rah Foard


Rob’s Rare Disease Story

FEATURED

A young man with light skin and short brown hair is photographed from the waist up while seated in his wheelchair. He has a mustache and is looking up and off to the side. He wears a light pink shirt; a tracheostomy tube is visible.

Photo: Rah Foard

Rob & I were featured in this NPR/KHN story, “Americans with disabilities need an updated long-term care plan, say advocates

No one will just sit down and tell me what is going to happen to my son,” she says. “You know, what are his options, really?
— NPR/KHN

My essay, “Remaining Silent: The Facts,” published in APR, was listed as a “Notable Essay of 2020” in Best American Essays 2021


Jeneva Stone is a poet, essayist & advocate. She’s the author of Monster (Phoenicia Publishing, 2016), a mixed-genre meditation on caregiving, disability & medicine. Her essays & poems have appeared in New England ReviewAmerican Poetry ReviewJAMA, WaxwingSplit This RockScoundrel Time, & many others. She is the recipient of fellowships from MacDowell (2012), Millay Arts (2012), and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (2023). She has been honored with a Caregivers Merit Award from GrubStreet Center for Creative Writing (2020), a Mellon Fellowship in the Humanities (1987) & several Pushcart Prize nominations. Her opinion writing has been featured in The Washington PostCNN DigitalAmericaBlog.com. Jeneva is a graduate of Middlebury College. She holds an MFA in poetry from Warren Wilson & a PhD in English Renaissance literature from Columbia University.

Photo: Harold Korn

Rob & I were featured in this Rare Disease Day story on WMAR, Baltimore: “Maryland Doctors: Be Aware of Rare Diseases.”