Accessing the Future: A Disability-Themed Anthology of Speculative Fiction (33 page)

Accessing the Future
is so exciting because it imagines new ways to think about access and it invites those of us with disabilities into a generally inaccessible space (whether it be “space” as in “place” or “space” as in “the final frontier”), the writing of our own bodies, our own identities, and our own futures. The range of disabilities invites an awareness of bodily and cognitive diversity and portrays disability as something that is not limiting, but rather expansive, opening up a whole range of new imaginative possibilities and ways of being. These narrators are not meant to be
inspirational
as so many disabled heroes are portrayed in popular ableist media, but are rather
human
and full of the same flaws and complexities of any other character. Not only does this collection play with a range of disabilities, but it explores the intersection of identities, whether between gender and disability, race and disability, or sexual orientation and disability.

While a character’s disability does not define them in the stories in this collection, it does permit them nuanced ways of understanding the world. From a character with spina bifida (Nicolette Barischoff’s “Pirate Songs”) who discovers how societies find convenient ways to hide their social undesirables and hide them away from public view (an issue that perpetually faces those of us with disabilities as our society seeks to erase disability from public perception) to a character with LD (learning disabilties) discovering that societies will use people with disabilities to test technology before marketing it to neurotypicals as enhancement (Sarah Pinsker’s “Pay Attention”), to exploring how the neuroplasticity of disability allows us to better explore possibilities that are unthought of by the neurotypical able-bodied mind (Jack Hollis Marr’s “into the waters i rode down”), the disabilities of these characters invite new ways of exploring the world.

Technology is not portrayed in these stories as it is in so many scifi stories by non-disabled people as a “cure all,” but is instead in a nuanced relationship to disability. It is questioned, interrogated, and ends up in a space of question, which is as it should be. Our technology should be open to imaginative possibilities and questions. Characters in this collection question whether their essential self is the self that pre-dates technology, or the integrated self that incorporates tech (“Pay Attention”; Louise Hughes’ “Losing Touch”). They explore the possibility that technology is an invasive and inadequate way of interacting with others. They question the limits of the fleshy body and our relationship to health care, which has always been problematic. They invite questions about the visibility of our bodies and the use of biometric technology (Samantha Rich’s “Screens”; Margaret Killjoy’s “Invisible People”). They question pharmaceuticals and our engagement with them and the meaning we can take from our use of pharmaceuticals (Kate O’Connor’s “Better to Have Loved”). They explore which technologies are available to us and under what conditions (Toby MacNutt’s “Morphic Resonance”; David Jon Fuller’s “In the Open Air”; Joyce Chng’s “The Lessons of the Moon”; Rachel Jones’ “Courting the Silent Sun”)… and, of course, which technologies are not available to us due to price, restricted use, and limited access. They ask what types of technologies question the limits of what we define as “human” and how far we can push these limits. These are not easy questions, nor do the authors provide simple answers, but rather open up more ways of questioning our engagement with our technology and the ways that it can extend our experience of the world. Technology doesn’t become the traditional sci fi fix all, but is instead engaged in a complicated relationship with disability.

These stories explore the tropes that are written onto disabled bodies and disrupt them—playing with the reader’s expectation of reading about characters who are vulnerable because of their disabilities, want to be cured, or want social support… and then subverting these expectations, turning them on their heads and disrupting the tropes that have been taken as norms in our society.

Whether battling rogue droids (Sara Patterson’s “A Sense All its Own”), negotiating with space pirates (“Pirate Songs”), being fitted with surveillance devices (Samantha Rich’s “Screens” and A.C. Buchanan’s “Puppetry”), engaging in telepathy or other forms of communication with alien or other non-human beings ( “into the waters i rode down”; A.F. Sanchez’s “Lyric”), exploring war (“Puppetry”) and other types of civil unrest (Petra Kuppers’s “Playa Song”; “Courting the Silent Sun”), the stories in
Accessing the Future
create those ramps, braille instructions, sign languages, and neuro-diverse environments for us to engage in a future rich with potential for disability. The future just got more exciting by providing us with an accessible space (the final frontier).

Contributors

Kathryn Allan
splits her time between running Academic Editing Canada and pursuing independent scholarship. Her writing appears in both academic and popular venues, and she is editor of
Disability in Science Fiction
(Palgrave Macmillan 2013). She writes about representations of disability, SF, and living with chronic illness on her blog and Twitter as Bleeding Chrome.

Fabian Alvarado
is an illustrator, sculptor, designer, scriptwriter... born in the Republic of Glassdavoldovia a long time ago. He has been drawing, painting and sculpting since he was 5 years old, actually he hasn't been able to get any great achievements in any way and he keeps dreaming something impossible.

Djibril al-Ayad
is the
nom de guerre
of a historian, futurist, writer and editor of
The Future Fire
, magazine of social-political speculative fiction. His interests span science, religion and magic; education and public engagement; diversity, inclusivity and political awareness in the arts.

L.E. Badillo
is a creator whose work includes cover art, interior illustrations, independent comic books and short stories. L.E. Badillo’s latest projects and whereabouts can be followed at elbad.net, @elBadArt on Twitter and at elbad.deviantart.com. L.E. Badillo is a member of the HWA.

Jane Baker
is a freelance illustrator, longer-suffering wife of a writer, and mother of two far-too-energetic sons. This is her second publication. She likes working on her future garden or hiding in her office to draw or play video games. You can see more of her art at arleea.com.

Nicolette Barischoff
was born with spastic cerebral palsy, which has only made her more awesome. Her first story was published in
Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction From the Margins of History
. This is her second. She is very aware of how cool it is to be launching her career with two such kick-ass anthologies. She can be reached via Twitter at @NBarischoff.

A.C. Buchanan
lives near Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. Their recent MA thesis examined blindness in Wells’s “The Country of the Blind” and Wyndham's
The Day of the Triffids
and their fiction has been published in a number of venues, including the 2012 Futurefire.net anthology
Outlaw Bodies
. Their website is at www.acbuchanan.org.

Born in Singapore but a global citizen,
Joyce Chng
writes mainly science fiction and YA fiction. She likes steampunk and tales of transformation/transfiguration. Her fiction has appeared in
Crossed Genres, The Apex Book of World SF II, We See A Different Frontier
and
Luna Station Quarterly.
Her website/blog can be found at A Wolf's Tale (awolfstale.wordpress.com) and she tweets too: @jolantru.

Comebab
is an Italian artist in the Art and Science field. A former researcher in chemistry for cultural heritage, and ex-intern in digital humanities at King’s College London, she studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts of Venice. Her works are strongly influenced by stained glass imagery. Find them at comebab.it.

Pandalion Death
is an illustrator and pattern-maker rumoured to be as mysterious as the dark side of the moon. Fortunately, you can get to know her better at @pandaliondeath and pandaliondeath.tumblr.com.

David Jón Fuller
is a Winnipeg writer and editor, but has also lived in Edmonton, AB, and Reykjavík, Iceland. His work has been published in
Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction From the Margins of History
;
Tesseracts 17
;
Kneeling in the Silver Light: Stories From the Great War
; and
Tesseracts 18: Wrestling With Gods
.

Louise Hughes
is an ancient history graduate and time traveller. When she isn’t exploring the past with a cup of tea and a knitting project, she writes speculative fiction to travel that little bit further. Her stories have appeared in
Strange Horizons
and
Daily Science Fiction
.

Rachael K. Jones
grew up across Europe and North America, learned six languages, mostly forgot them, and now writes from her secret hideout in Athens, Georgia. Her work has appeared in many venues, including
Crossed Genres
,
Strange Horizons
, and
PodCastle
. She is a SFWA member, editor, and a secret android.

Robin E. Kaplan
splits her time between picture books, comics, and genre illustration, and sells her work online and at comic cons as The Gorgonist. She is dedicated to showing diversity in sci-fi & fantasy. Her weekly fantasy web comic,
Ushala at World's End
, can be found at ushalacomic.com.

Rachel Keslensky
writes, draws, and transforms coffee into the cyberpunk graphic novel series
Last Res0rt
, featuring a feline alien vampire and her adventures on a deadly, galaxy-spanning reality TV program, available to read online at lastres0rt.com. Her artwork has also been featured at multiple hacker conferences.

Margaret Killjoy
is a nomadic author and editor who is, as of this writing, based in the Pacific Northwest. Margaret’s most recent book is
A Country of Ghosts
, an anarchist utopian novel published by Combustion Books in 2014. Margaret blogs at birdsbeforethestorm.net.

Vincent Konrad
is a cartoonist, illustrator, and writer from Aotearoa. He is also a punk, a dandy, and a bore. His work can be found online by looking for it.

Petra Kuppers
teaches at the University of Michigan and in Goddard College's low-residency MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts. Beyond her academic credits and a book of poetry (
Cripple Poetics: A Love Story
, Homofactus Press, 2008), she has published short stories in British and US journals like
Visionary Tongue
,
Festival Writer
,
Wordgathering
,
Quietus
,
Cambrensis
and beyond.

Jack Hollis Marr
(also published as Jack H. Marr) writes speculative fiction and poetry for adults and teens. His work often tackles issues of gender, sexuality and disability, interlaced with mythic and folkloric themes and rural life past and present.

Toby MacNutt
is a dis/abled, nonbinary queer/trans dancer, choreographer, textile artist, and now author. In hir day job, ze works on arts integration and universal access in secondary and post-secondary teaching environments. This is hir first professional publication. Find hir online at TobyMacNutt.com.

Derek Newman-Stille
is a PhD student researching the representation of disability in Canadian speculative fiction. He is the creator of the Aurora Award-winning website Speculating Canada and runs a show on Trent Radio. Derek has been a juror for the Sunburst Awards, runs the Peterborough branch of the cross-Canada author reading series
ChiSeries
, and has published on Canadian SF in fora such as
Quill and Quire
,
Mosaic
and
The Canadian Fantastic in Focus
.

Kate O’Connor
was born in Virginia in 1982. She now lives and works in the New York area. In between telling stories, she flies airplanes, digs up artifacts, and manages a kennel full of Airedales. Kate has been writing science fiction and fantasy since 2011.

Sara Patterson
was born legally blind but has never let bad eyesight stop her imagination. Aside from writing, Sara spends her free time listening to audiobooks, playing
The Sims
, and hanging out with her two mischievous ferrets.

Sarah Pinsker
is the author of the novelette “In Joy, Knowing the Abyss Behind,” winner of the 2014 Sturgeon Award and 2013 Nebula finalist. Her fiction has appeared in
Asimov’s
,
Strange Horizons
,
Fantasy & Science Fiction
, and
Lightspeed
, and in several anthologies. Find her online at sarahpinsker.com and twitter.com/sarahpinsker.

Samantha Rich
is a fan of speculative fiction, chocolate-based foods, textual analysis, and history. She lives in the mid-Atlantic with a (bossy) cat and a (nervous) dog.

Anna Felicia Sanchez
is a fiction writer, assistant professor at the University of the Philippines, and parent to a special child with whom she shares an obsession with animals. Sanchez's speculative fiction has appeared in the local anthologies
Nine Supernatural Stories
,
Pinoy Amazing Adventures
, and
Tales of Enchantment and Fantasy
.

Tostoini
says: “I studied to be an anthropologist though I always wanted to be an illustrator. Born in Sardinia, living in Milan, missing the sea all the time. My proper name is Roberta Ragona but it's easier to find me as Tostoini. I draw for magazines, ebooks, advertising, websites, exhibitions and also for fun.”

JoSelle Vanderhooft
is a freelance writer and editor. When not editing, she's putting together anthologies, one of which—
Steam-Powered: Lesbian Steampunk Stories
—was a finalist for the 2012 Lambda Literary Award. Her first novel,
Ebenezer
, was also a finalist for the 2014 Rainbow Reader Award. She lives in Florida.