Adelle Purdham

Hi! My name is Adelle Purdham (she/her) and I’m the author of the memoir-in-essays, I Don’t Do Disability And Other Lies I’ve Told Myself (Dundurn Press, 2024). Important to the subject matter I write about, I am a mom to three girls—one of whom has Down syndrome. I write about disability parenting, motherhood, the writing life, and the experience of being a woman in a patriarchal world. In my work, I strive to call out ableism (my own included), debunk stereotypes (through showing versus telling), and offer a counter-cultural view of individuals with Down syndrome and those who parent them.

My poetry and prose appear in literary anthologies (Bad Artist, TouchWood Editions), literary journals (The Humber Literary Review), newspapers (The Toronto Star), magazines (3.21: Canada’s Down Syndrome Magazine) and online (Brevity’s Nonfiction Blog), and my essays are finalists in several literary contests, including: The Writer’s Union of Canada Short Prose Competition, EVENT Magazine and The Fiddlehead’s Creative Nonfiction Contests.

I hold an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the University of King’s College (2022) and an Honours Bachelor of Education from Western University (2008). I began my career as a French Immersion teacher before staying home for the next nine years to raise my three daughters. During that time, I earned a Certificate from the Humber School for Writers Writing by Correspondence Program.

I currently work as a Sessional Part-time Faculty member at Trent University where I teach creative writing as a Workshop Leader and Course Instructor. I frequently mentor and provide editing work for other writers and I have twice been awarded mentorship grants from the Writer’s Union of Canada. The writers with whom I’ve worked have completed manuscripts, earned grants, been accepted into coveted residencies, such as Banff Centre for the Arts, and won literary contests with the help of my editorial eye. I also facilitate a women’s writing retreat, and have guest lectured at colleges and conferences as part of my parent disability advocacy work. In July 2024, I was a speaker at The World Down Syndrome Congress in Brisbane, Australia. I’m also a proud member of The Writer’s Union of Canada and The Creative Nonfiction Collective.

A few fun facts about me: I’ve run a marathon; I love to swim and do yoga as much as I enjoy eating a plate of nachos. I aim to read 100 books a year. My husband and I have matching wrist tattoos, three chevrons pointing towards the sky (“three” to represent the tripling of the twenty-first chromosome present with Down syndrome), along with hundreds of other people in the Down syndrome community because we’re a part of The Lucky Few. I was a competitive gymnast until I was 16 years old, and my teammates voted me ‘most sportsman-like’ 6 years in a row. I’m an introverted extrovert: I need to be with people, but I also need time alone to think and recharge. I spend time outside every day, and my life with my dog and cat in it feels right. My family and I sold our home and took a six week around-the-world trip in 2019.

A few books that have shaped me (this is in no way an exhaustive list): The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, The Giver by Lois Lowry, Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Anne Patchett’s This is the Story of a Happy Marriage; I am I am I am: Seventeen Brushes With Death by Maggie O’Farrell, Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy, Becoming Human by Jean Vanier, Ghost Boy by Martin Pistorius, Equipoise by Katie Zdybel, Pathologies by Susan Olding, The Wrong Way to Save Your Life by Megan Stielstra, Motherhood by Sheila Heti, The Book of Delights by Ross Gay, The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison and everything by Annie Dillard and Mary Oliver.