Because of the financial insecurity of my youth, I never went to university. I did graduate from an Electrotechnology program at a provincial college level in Québec, which provided me with a great job at age 19. I had interviewed to become a servo-actuator tech on airplane simulators, but the union was on strike, so I was offered a non-unionized staff job instead: technical writer.

“Technical writer? What’s that?” I’d asked. And that folks, was the beginning of a two-decade career.

Throughout my adult life, I’d had “equivalent experience,” so I didn’t require a degree to do my job. Often, I was the only one in my friend group who’d never been to university. Sometimes I felt left out or regarded as “less than,” even though none of my closest friends ever treated me that way.

But now, I’ve gone and done the thing! I attended Trent University just this past Halloween! My BFF Talia C. Johnson and I have been guest lecturers, invited by Dr. Derek Newman-Stille, for the past five years. We’ve had the privilege of our anthology, Nothing Without Us, being part of the syllabus in Derek’s disability studies course since 2020! I had only ever spoken to their class virtually, but this year, Talia and I went together in person. On the wettest, sleetest-filled day of the pumpkins. Still, it was a total blast!

The students were incredible. So aware, so curious, so brilliant. It was a pleasure to chat with them. And as always, Derek guided the discussion with their usual ease and skill. It was special for me to be disabled in a class taught by a disabled professor on the topic of disability. I felt safe and celebrated.

The entire class was three hours long, so after two hours, Talia and I stayed on as participants while Derek taught a lecture. So, after my being a “teacher,” I got to be a student for an hour! It was super fun giving my opinion while I listened to the students give such insightful answers to Derek’s questions.

Then, after class, we took more fun photos. It’s great to be silly.

So there you go. I can’t say I’ve never gone to university. I went, it was fun, and I’ll treasure that memory always. And all of this happened because years ago, I had an autistic blurty moment where I’d wondered aloud, “I really want to edit an anthology with stories written only by disabled authors. But I don’t know how to do that.”

Guess it helped that I blurted it in front of a small-press publishing director, eh?

See? Autistic traits work for us, too! And curiosity did not kill this Cait! (It’s funny because my name sounds like cat.)

If another opportunity to speak at a university comes up, I will be happy to consider it! I could teach about disability representation in fiction and what we as disabled creatives face in Publishing until the cows come home. (And maybe also even after they’re tucked in the barn afterwards. The cows, that is.)

Cait Gordon is an award-winning Canadian speculative fiction writer and anthology editor who advocates for disability, mental health, and neurodiversity representation in written works. She is the author of Speculative Shorts: Stories that fell out of my brain, Season One: Iris and the Crew Tear Through Space! and the co-editor (with Talia C. Johnson) of the Nothing Without Us and Nothing Without Us Too disability fiction anthologies. Cait is also the host of The Disabled Crone podcast. She is autistic, disabled, and queer, and really loves cake.

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