Sandra Thom-Jones is an autistic author, artisan, academic and advocate. She is the author of Growing in to Autism (Melbourne University Press, 2022; 2025), Autistics in Academia (Cambridge University Press, 2024), and Autistics at Work (MUP, 2025). Sandra’s writing on the autistic experience has also been published in The Conversation, The Guardian, Broad Agenda, The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, and Flare Magazine.
Sandra also writes fiction short stories with autistic characters and has just finished her first novel. In 2025 she was the winner of the Scarlet Stiletto Award for short crime fiction for her story Der Hölle Rache; and in 2023 she won the third prize as well as the Liz Navratil Prize for the Best Crime Story with a Disabled Protagonist. Her short stories have been published in the Sydney Hammond Memorial Anthologies in 2023, 2024 and 2025, including her 2025 story ‘The Luckiest Couple’ which received the ‘Editor’s Pick’ commendation. She has also won many local and state writing awards and been shortlisted for the Jennifer Burbidge Award (2024 and 2025) and longlisted for the Lane Cove Literary Award 2025 and Furphy Literary Award 2023.
Sandra worked for more than two decades in the university sector as a researcher and senior leader. She now works as a consultant providing a range of services for autistic people – as well as research and consultancy services for education, employment and healthcare providers – through her website Autistic Professor. Sandra loves knitting, jigsaw puzzles, doll collecting, country music, and all things pink. She doesn’t like loud noises, bright lights, scratchy things or small talk. After decades of feeling like no matter how hard she tried she could never be ‘just like everyone else’ her autism diagnosis helped her to realise that it was actually okay to be herself.
Publications
Books
- Autistics at Work, Melbourne University Press, 2025; ISBN 9780522881462
- Autistics in Academia: Narratives of Work, Adversity, and Achievement from Around the World, Cambridge University Press, 2025; ISBN 9781009374033 (paperback) 9781009374064 (hardback)
- Growing in to Autism, Melbourne University Press, 2022; ISBN 9780522878882
- Second edition 2025; ISBN 9780522881417
- Chinese Edition: Zhang, Y, translator. The Oriental Press, 2024; ISBN 9787520737395
Short Stories in Anthology
- ‘Der Hölle Rache’ in Scarlet Stiletto – The 17th Cut, 2025; Clan Destine Press
- ‘The Luckiest Couple’ in If Found Please Return, 2025; Hawkeye Publishing
Social Media