Brian Trapp Writes His Twin into Literature

Brian Trapp Writes His Twin into Literature

From Talking Writing by Martha Nichols, John Vogel, and Neva Talladen

May 27, 2026 · 38 min · Season 6 · Episode 13

About this episode

Brian Trapp discusses his semi-autobiographical novel about twin brothers and the challenges of disability.

For this week's episode, author Brian Trapp sits down with TW creative director John Vogel to talk about Brian's 2025 novel Range of Motion (Acre Books). The book is semi-autobiographical fiction about twin brothers, one of whom was born with cerebral palsy and severe intellectual disabilities, an experience paralleling Brian's own with his twin brother Danny. The novel is written with tenderness, humor, and celebration centering twin brothers Michael and Sal, their parents Hannah and Gabe, and the whole family’s experience balancing care, work, school, and social lives. In 2009, while enrolled in a master’s program for creative writing at the University of Cincinnati (UC), Brian started to write a fictional story based on a week that he and Danny spent at Camp Cheerful in Ohio. He wrote about a hundred pages for his thesis before losing steam. To regain momentum, he backtracked to the twins’ childhood, starting when they were five and going forward from there to catch up to the scenes at the camp when they were 18. Brian earned his PhD in creative writing and disability studies from UC, and has accumulated a list of grants, fellowships, and residencies, including a Tin House…

People in this episode

Host: John Vogel

Guest: Brian Trapp

Topics covered

  • autobiographical fiction
  • disability studies
  • twin brothers
  • creative writing
  • family dynamics

Keywords

  • Brian Trapp
  • Range of Motion
  • twin brothers
  • cerebral palsy
  • creative writing
  • disability studies

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Cincinnati, University of Oregon

Books & works: Range of Motion

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