CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS

Late Diagnosis and Neurodivergence:Autoethnographies and Creative Narratives of Recognition

Edited by Tess Ezzy | University of New England Proposals due: 31 July 2026 | Final works due: 30 November 2026

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About the Collection

For many adults, a late diagnosis of autism, ADHD, OCD, or another form of neurodivergence is less a clinical event than a hermeneutic one. It is the moment when a life becomes newly legible: when childhood memories, failed relationships, fractured work histories, and years of exhaustion can be reread through a different framework. Behaviours previously interpreted as inadequacy or failure become intelligible as neurodivergent experience.

Late Diagnosis and Neurodivergence: Autoethnographies and Creative Narratives of Recognition explores this moment of reinterpretation through a combination of autoethnographic scholarship and creative practice. The volume brings together scholars, writers, and artists whose work reflects on the experience of discovering neurodivergence in adulthood — and the profound rewriting of self that follows.

Rather than separating creative and scholarly contributions, the collection integrates both forms across its thematic sections, allowing poetry, lyric essay, visual art, and academic writing to speak directly to one another.

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Key Themes

The collection is organised around the following questions:

• How does late diagnosis reshape personal narratives of childhood and identity?
• How do neurodivergent individuals reinterpret experiences of masking, burnout, and difference after diagnosis?
• What role do gender, race, culture, and social expectation play in delayed recognition of neurodivergence?
• How can creative practice express aspects of neurodivergent experience that resist traditional academic language?
• What new forms of knowledge emerge when lived experience and scholarly inquiry intersect?

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Collection Structure

The volume is organised thematically across four parts, each integrating scholarly and creative contributions:

Part I – Recognising Neurodivergence The moment of diagnosis and the journey toward recognition.

Part II – Rewriting the Past Reinterpreting childhood, schooling, and adolescence through the lens of neurodivergence.

Part III – Masking, Labour, and Burnout The social expectations placed on neurodivergent individuals prior to diagnosis, and the costs of compliance.

Part IV – Identity, Community, and Belonging How diagnosis reshapes identity, self-understanding, and connection to others.

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What We're Looking For

We welcome contributions across the full range of scholarly and creative forms, including:

• Autoethnographic essays
• Lyric nonfiction and creative nonfiction
• Poetry
• Hybrid and experimental writing
• Visual art (with accompanying artist statement)
• Collaborative or multimodal work

Contributors need not hold academic positions. We particularly welcome work from neurodivergent scholars, writers, and artists whose lived experience informs their practice, and are committed to representing diverse voices across gender, race, culture, class, and geography.

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Submission Guidelines

Please submit the following:

1. Proposal (500 words maximum) Your proposal should describe the contribution you are offering, its thematic focus, and the form it will take (essay, creative nonfiction, poetry, visual art, hybrid work, etc.). Please indicate the part of the collection your contribution speaks to most directly, though we welcome work that moves across sections.

2. Writing Sample (for creative contributions) If you are proposing a creative or hybrid contribution, please include a writing sample of up to 1,000 words (or equivalent for visual work). This should be representative of your voice and approach, but need not be the proposed piece itself. For poetry, please include 2–3 poems.

3. Author Bio (100 words maximum) Please include a brief biographical statement written in the third person, noting your institutional affiliation (if any), your relevant scholarly or creative practice, and any connection to neurodivergent experience or advocacy you wish to share. Disclosure of personal neurodivergent experience is welcomed but entirely optional.

Submissions should be sent to tcaloped@myune.edu.au with the subject line Late Diagnosis CFP – [Your Name].

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About the Editor

Tess Ezzy is a researcher at the University of New England whose work explores neurodivergence, cultural representation, and lived experience across literature, media, and contemporary culture. Her research sits at the intersection of cultural studies, disability studies, and narrative scholarship, with a particular focus on neurodivergent perspectives on embodiment, identity, and storytelling. She is the founding series editor of a forthcoming Routledge series on Critical Neurodivergent Studies, and the founder of the Neurodivergent Methods Lab — an interdisciplinary research initiative dedicated to developing creative, autoethnographic, and practice-based approaches to studying neurodivergence. Her forthcoming monographs include Making a Spectacle of the Self and Critical Neurodivergent Studies (Vernon Press, 2027).

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Enquiries

For informal enquiries about fit or scope, please contact Tess Ezzy at tcaloped@myune.edu.au. We are happy to discuss ideas prior to submission.