Welcome to The Spiral Lab by Marta Rose
The Spiral Lab is less a newsletter with a clear niche and more a wide-ranging experiment exploring topics related to spiral time, divergent design, and disability justice. Published twice monthly, it includes news, essays, book reviews, and photos above the paywall, and a portion of my work in progress, a book about divergent design (see below).
The Spiral Lab continues and expands on my work on Instagram @divergent_design_studios, as well as on The Spiral Lab YouTube channel.
My work offers critical insights and healing metaphors for reframing the ways we understand neurodivergence and disability. I also write about interior and garden design, camping in a van with my partner and our dogs, homemaking and community-building, moments of enchantment, books I’m reading, and interviews with interesting, smart people.
Since my partner was diagnosed with cancer and lost his job (in a two day span at the end of 2024), we’ve come to depend almost entirely on my income to support us in a very modest lifestyle. If my work is important to you, and you can afford it, I very much appreciate your paid subscription!
The Divergent Design Book Project
I am writing a book about Divergent Design—interior design by and for neurodivergent people through which we can create homes that meet our specific needs and desires as we unmask, change, and grow over our lifetimes. My intention is to begin a press and publish this book, and hopefully many others by other authors as well. As I draft the book, I will put parts of it up behind a paywall for paid subscribers, but my intention is that eventually this content will become available to everyone!
Other ways to work with me
I offer online courses and workshops through KR Presents a collection of courses curated by my friend and colleague, KR. Moorhead. You can register your interest in my courses, as well as those offered by the other fantastic KR Presents facilitators, and you will receive information about dates and occasionally discounted tickets.
I am also the founder and creative director of Divergent Design Studios, an online community for neurodivergent creatives. We offer multiple weekly peer support and body doubling sessions, plus virtual open studio times and artistic and literary salons. We charge a sliding scale fee of between $9 and $29 per month, but no one will be turned away, and if you need a subsidized or free membership, please email me, no questions asked, at marta@martarose.com.
About Me
Marta Rose is a queer AuDHD writer and artist. Her work offers critical insights and healing metaphors for reframing the ways we understand neurodivergence. She founded and directs Divergent Design Studios, an online community offering body doubling, workshops, and peer support for neurodivergent creatives. She writes a weekly(ish) substack newsletter called The Spiral Lab, and has published several ebooks, including Neuroemergent Time: Making Time Make Sense for ADHD and Autistic People and Getting Started is the Hardest Part. Her work has been cited by Dr. Devon Price in Unmasking Autism and Unmasking for Life, by Rebecca Schiller in A Thousand Ways to Pay Attention, by Ellie Middleton in How to Be You, and by Jesse Meadows in the Sluggish newsletter, among others. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Warren Wilson College. She has two grown neurodivergent children and lives in Philadelphia, on the land of the Lenni Lenape people, with her partner, two dogs and two cats.
What people have said about my work
