3D image including the spine of a book cover of "The Neurodiversiverse: Alien Encounters", a science fiction anthology. Background is stylized art of an astronaut meeting an alien in outer space. Art by Barbara Candiotti.
3D image including the spine of a book cover of "The Neurodiversiverse: Alien Encounters", a science fiction anthology. Background is stylized art of an astronaut meeting an alien in outer space. Art by Barbara Candiotti.
A book cover of "The Neurodiversiverse: Alien Encounters", a science fiction anthology. Background is stylized art of an astronaut meeting an alien in outer space. Art by Barbara Candiotti.

The Neurodiversiverse: Alien Encounters

Edited by Anthony Francis, Liza Olmsted

 
A diverse, hopeful book of neurodiversity-themed science fiction short stories, poetry, and art for anyone who loves science fiction, who cares about neurodiversity, or who wants to see optimistic visions of the future.

From: $9.99

Genre: Fiction, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction
Published: 2024
Category: Tags: ,

Description

Would neurodiversity be an advantage in an encounter with aliens? Let’s find out!
 
Heartbroken starships.
Human-sized hamster balls.
Superpowers unleashed by anxiety.
A planet covered in mathematical fidgets.
And we finally learn why aliens abduct cows.
 
A diverse, hopeful anthology of neurodiversity-themed science fiction short stories, poetry and art for anyone who loves science fiction, who cares about neurodiversity, or who wants to see optimistic visions of the future.
 
Featuring stories, poems and art from Tobias S. Buckell, M. D. Cooper, Ada Hoffmann, Jody Lynn Nye, Cat Rambo, and nearly forty other contributors, The Neurodiversiverse: Alien Encounters was edited by Anthony Francis, author of the award-winning urban fantasy novel Frost Moon, and Liza Olmsted, editor of the writing inspiration book Your Writing Matters.
 
The Neurodiversiverse includes themes of autism, ADHD, PTSD, OCD, synesthesia, several kinds of anxiety, avoidant attachment disorder, dissociative disorder, and more.
 

Many of these stories are told from an authentic neurodiverse #ownvoices perspective, featuring characters whose experiences and reactions are informed by authors who share their neurodivergent ways of thinking and being, and we are proud to bring you this anthology celebrating neurodiversity.

Among our experienced authors, we are proud to feature:

  • Tobias S. Buckell, author of Shoggoths in Traffic, brings us “The Pipefitter,” which explores the benefits and drawbacks of ADHD in a far-future fight for survival against aliens who are merciless—and a neurotypical world that is unbending.
  • M. D. Cooper, creator of the Aeon 14 universe, gives us “The Zeta Remnant,” in which competent explorers train themselves to make good decisions regardless of whether they are autistic or not—and M.D.’s autistic, so she’d know.
  • Ada Hoffmann, author of the Outside trilogy, brings us “Music, Not Words,” which depicts the struggle autistic people face to be heard clearly—and speculates that, sometimes, the words themselves could be the problem.
  • Jody Lynn Nye, author of forty novels, a hundred stories, and The Dragonlover’s Guide to Pern, gives us “A Hint of Color,” which shines a light on how synesthesia could reveal aliens that neurotypical people might not even recognize.
  • Cat Rambo, author of You Sexy Thing, Nebula Award finalist, and former president of SFWA, surprises us with “Scary Monsters, Super Creeps,” which explores how superheroes and supervillians fighting in the streets could be the worst place in the world for someone with anxiety—or the best.

Our list of creators also includes:

Excerpts

  • Every night that summer, when Justina looked out her bedroom window, something sang to her.
At first she didn’t know where the song came from. But music had always meant more to her than mere words. Music was an intricate pattern of tone and pitch and timing that sank directly into the heart and moved the body. Words, Justina had trouble with, even on a good day. Music, she understood more intimately than anything.
So she leaned out through her window every night and breathed the music in. It told her:
Friends. People like her in some ways, and very unlike her in others. Friends, up there, between the stars, in the sky.
Justina believed what she heard without questioning. Questions were for adults and rude classmates who cornered her in the yard: why can’t you answer us? Why can’t you explain? What’s wrong with you?
Music did not need interrogation, question, or explanation. Music only was, self-evidently.
So it did not surprise Justina when, in late July that summer—the year she’d turned fifteen—she started to see the flying saucers. Silvery disks, spinning like an old-fashioned record, pulsing in time with the strange, lovely tune that came down from them to Earth.


Media Kit

Additional information

Weight N/A
Dimensions N/A
Editor

Anthony Francis, Liza Olmsted
Format

ebook, paperback
Genre

, ,

Published Date

2024
Print ISBN

978-1-942480-26-6
Ebook ISBN

978-1-942480-27-3

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