If you’re in the Phoenix area, Paul Bendix will be giving a reading from his collection of essays offering a perspective of his life with a disability, Dance without Steps, at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe on Wednesday, May 23 at 7 p.m.

Summary from the event description:

“In his recipe for Pea Soup à la Quadriplegia, Paul Bendix advises to crush garlic with your wheelchair tires and cut up carrots with your teeth. So begins his offbeat and frequently humorous account of life with paralysis. Mugged and shot in the spinal cord at age 21, Bendix recounts working at jobs with one unfeeling hand, wheelchair journeys through suburbia, and perils of taking a shower in France. He looks straight at the hand he’s been dealt and the fierce complexities that have come with it.”