Autism Interview #128: Dr. James McGrath on Representation, Transition Supports, and Reframing the Autism Identity Narrative

Dr. James McGrath is Lecturer in English and Creative Writing at Leeds Beckett University, UK. His book Naming Adult Autism: Culture, Science, Identity is available in paperback from Rowman & Littlefield International and his poems have appeared in various literary magazines. His next book will be a new set of experimental poems, titled an autistic figuration. This week he discussed autistic representation in literature, transition obstacles and supports, and reframing the autism identity narrative.

Lists of Autistic Representation in Literature

Autistic representation in literature is growing, but all portrayals are not universally favorable. There are many different ways autistic people live, so no one representation should be accepted as truth. Other controversy arises when one portrayal is so narrow that it leads to damaging misconceptions. This is a complex issue, but increasing the amount of autistic portrayals and greater exposure to autistic-authored literature featuring autistic characters should at least get our society moving in the right direction.

Autism Interview #57: Mickey Rowe on Autism and Theatre

Mickey Rowe

Mickey Rowe is the first autistic actor to play Christopher Boone in the Tony Award winning play The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and one of the first autistic actors to play any autistic character. He has been featured in the New York Times, PBS, Teen Vogue, Playbill, NPR, CNN’S Great Big Story, Huffington Post and more. Mickey is also Artistic Director of Arts on the Waterfront, a high-quality free theater and arts program in downtown Seattle where many homeless community members live. This week he shared his experience working as an actor with The Indiana Repertory Theatre.

Autism Interview #38: Ada Hoffman on Autistic Characters

Ada Hoffman

Ada Hoffmann is a writer and computer science PhD student who has authored over 60 published speculative short stories and poems and six papers that she has presented at conferences around the world. Ada was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome at the age of 13, and is passionate about autistic self-advocacy. Her Autistic Book Party review series is devoted to in-depth discussions of autism representation in speculative fiction. This week she shared some of her experience reading and writing about autistic characters and advocating for individuals on the spectrum.

Autism Interview #26: Jennifer Brozek on Creating Neurodiverse Characters

jenniferbrozek

Jennifer Brozek is an award winning editor/author, and freelance writer. Jennifer is the author of the award winning YA Battletech novel, The Nellus Academy Incident, the Bram Stoker nominated YA novel, Never Let Me Sleep, and Shadowrun novella, Doc Wagon 19. She has also written for the AAA MMO Aion and the award winning videogame, Shadowrun Returns.

Jennifer is also a Director-at-Large of SFWA, and an active member of HWA and IAMTW. You can read more about her at her blog or follow her on Twitter at @JenniferBrozek.

This week Jennifer shared her experience as an autistic writer and some of society’s misconceptions about autism.