At IntroSPECtion, we recognize that marginalised authors are under-represented in the speculative fiction genres. In this article, we compiled a list that highlights neurodiverse and disabled-Canadian writers that have published books in the speculative fiction genre. Amanda Leduc (she/her)
AMANDA LEDUC's essays and stories have appeared in publications across Canada, the US, and the UK. She is the author of the non-fiction book Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space (Coach House Books, 2020), which was shortlisted for the 2020 Governor General’s Award in Nonfiction, and the novel The Miracles of Ordinary Men (ECW Press, 2013). Her latest novel is The Centaur’s Wife, out now with Random House Canada. She has cerebral palsy and lives in Hamilton, Ontario, where she works as the Communications Coordinator for the Festival of Literary Diversity (FOLD), Canada's first festival for diverse authors and stories.
In The Centaur’s Wife, Heather is sleeping peacefully after the birth of her twin daughters when the sound of the world ending jolts her awake. Stumbling outside with her babies and her new husband, Brendan, she finds that their city has been destroyed by falling meteors and that her little family are among the few who survived.
But the mountain that looms over the city is still green–somehow it has been spared the destruction that has brought humanity to the brink of extinction. Heather is one of the few who know the mountain, a place city-dwellers have always been forbidden to go. Her dad took her up the mountain when she was a child on a misguided quest to heal her legs that had been damaged at birth. The tragedy that resulted has shaped her life, bringing her both great sorrow and an undying connection to the deep magic of the mountain. A connection made real by the beings she and her dad encountered that day: Estajfan, a centaur born of sorrow and of an ancient, impossible love, and his two siblings, marooned between the magical and the human world. Even as those in the city around her struggle to keep everyone alive, Heather constantly looks to the mountain, drawn by love, by fear, by the desire for rescue. She is torn in two by her awareness of what unleashed the meteor shower and what is coming for the few survivors, once the earth makes a final reckoning of the usefulness of human life and finds it wanting.
At times devastating, but ultimately redemptive, Amanda Leduc's fable for our uncertain times reminds us that the most important things in life aren't things at all, but rather the people we want by our side at the end of the world.
Andrew Wilmot (they/them)
Andrew Wilmot (they/them) is a Toronto-based writer, editor, and painter. They have won awards for screenwriting and short fiction, with credits including a myriad of online and in-print publications and anthologies. Andrew is also on the editorial advisory board for Poplar Press, the speculative fiction imprint of Wolsak & Wynn, and is co-editor-in-chief of the two-time Ignyte-nominated magazine Anathema: Spec from the Margins. The Death Scene Artist, their debut novel, was released in 2018 under Wolsak & Wynn’s Buckrider Books imprint.
In the speculative horror novel, Withered, a non-binary student named Ellis moves to the disquieting town of Black Stone after reaching a low point with their mental health,only to find themselves living on the town’s most haunted property, embroiled in a decades-long spectral war. Withered is slated to be released in 2024.
Jes Battis (they/them)
Jes Battis is the author of the Occult Special Investigator series and Parallel Parks series (as Bailey Cunningham) with Ace. Their first novel, Night Child, was shortlisted for the Sunburst Award. Jes teaches queer and trans studies, medieval literature, and representations of disability/neurodiversity in pop culture at the University of Regina. They split time between the Prairies and the West Coast.
In The Winter Knight Arthurian legends are reborn in this upbeat,queer urban fantasy with a mystery at its heart. The knights of the round table are alive in Vancouver, but when one winds up dead, it’s clear the familiar stories have taken a left turn. Hildie, a Valkyrie and the investigator assigned to the case, wants to find the killer — and maybe figure her life out while she’s at it. On her short list of suspects is Wayne, an autistic college student and the reincarnation of Sir Gawain, who these days is just trying to survive in a world that wasn’t made for him. After finding himself at the scene of the crime, Wayne is pulled deeper into his medieval family history while trying to navigate a new relationship with the dean’s charming assistant, Burt — who also happens to be a prime murder suspect. To figure out the truth, Wayne and Hildie have to connect with dangerous forces: fallen knights, tricky runesmiths, the Wyrd Sisters of Gastown–and a hungry beast that stalks Wayne’s dreams.The story is a propulsive, urban fairy tale and detective story with queer and trans heroes that asks what it means to be a myth, who gets to star in these tales, and ultimately, how we make our stories our own.
K. A. Reynolds
K. A. Reynolds is a poet and author from Winnipeg, Canada, currently residing in Vermont, USA. Her superpowers include daydreaming, smiling, and saving spiders from certain peril. When not typing, hiking, or tripping up the stairs, she enjoys swapping bad jokes with her numerous offspring, herding various furry beasts, and reading strange and colorful tales expertly crafted by other imagination astronauts in love with words. Visit her at www.kareynoldsbooks.com.
In The Spinner of Dreams Annalise Meriwether—though kind, smart, and curious—is terribly lonely.
Cursed at birth by the devious Fate Spinner, Annalise has always lived a solitary life with her loving parents. She does her best to ignore the cruel townsfolk of her desolate town—but the black mark on her hand won’t be ignored.
Not when the monster living within it, which seems to have an agenda of its own, grows more unpredictable each day.
There’s only one way for Annalise to rid herself of her curse: to enter the Labyrinth of Fate and Dreams and defeat the Fate Spinner. Despite her anxiety, Annalise sets out to undo the curse that’s defined her—and to show the world, and herself, exactly who she is inside.
For more listicles spotlighting Canadian writers in Speculative fiction, check out our “Canucks in Space” series!
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