Daniel Ray Williams is a first time author who self-published his first book, an autobiography, My Voice: Faced with Autism in 2018. Daniel has a passion for writing and been writing since the age of 12. Daniel is at work writing his second book. This week he shared some of his difficulties navigating life as as a member of multiple marginalized identities and how his positive attitude has helped him throughout his life.
Alan Conrad is an autistic father and author with over 40 years working in the personal injury business. Conrad is the author of several books, including The Shyness Guide, which explores shyness, introversion, autism, and social anxiety. This week Conrad shared his experiences with shyness and advocacy for shy people.
Yenn Purkis is an autistic and non-binary author, advocate, public speaker and community leader. They also have a diagnosis of schizophrenia. They are the author of nine published books on elements of autism and blog regularly. Yenn is a public speaker of almost 20 years’ experience and has presented at a range of events including for TEDx Canberra in 2013. Yenn facilitates an autism support group which has been running since 2011. Yenn has a number of media engagements both in Australia and overseas. They have a strong social media presence and have been sharing a daily meme since 2014. They have a number of awards for their work including the 2016 ACT Volunteer of the Year and 2019 ACT Chief Minister’s Inclusion Award. This week Yenn discussed their recently-published book The Awesome Autistic Go-To Guide: A Practical Handbook for Autistic Teens and Tweens.
Khali Raymond is a writer and musician from Newark, New Jersey. He could read at the age of two and his work ethic and love for words has led to a prolific writing career (with 163 books to date). Khali’s love for his city and community is extremely strong and is a primary influence for his work. This week Khali discussed his writing life, the stereotypes he encounters, and the direction of autism advocacy.
Bernard Grant’s writing has appeared in Crab Orchard Review, New Delta Review, The South Carolina Review, Third Coast, and Craft, among other online and print publications. Bernard serves as an Associate Fiction Editor of Tahoma Literary Review and holds an MFA from The Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University where they were awarded the Carol Houck Smith Graduate Scholarship. They have also received scholarships to The Anderson Center, Sundress Academy for the Arts, and Fishtrap: Writing and the West, as well as fellowships from Vermont Studio Center, Jack Straw Cultural Center, Mineral School, and The University of Cincinnati, where they are a PhD candidate in Comparative Literature and Creative Writing, and are at work on a novel-in-stories that focuses on a mixed-raced family and features autistic characters. Bernard is also working on essays on autism and American racism, which they plan to collect and title Unmasking. This week Bernard discussed his life as an Autistic author and ways society can work towards autism acceptance.
Rosie Weldon is an Autistic accountant living and working in the North West of England. She is also a prolific author and has her own blog about everyday Autistic life, including things like Autistic behaviors, mental health, advice for parenting Autistic children, and lots more. This week she shared her path to a diagnosis and the ways she advocates for inclusion and autism acceptance.
Lucas Ksenhuk is an 18-year-old Autistic artist from Brazil. He has an unmistakable style that has been the talk of many street art exhibitions in São Paulo, such as Egg Parade, Cow Parade, and Elephant Parade, Football Parade, Ear Parade, and Vitruvian Parade. Lucas believes his art can help people and sees it as a way to transform his own life and that of others, bringing independence and recognition to the spectrum. Lucas’ recently released book with Underline Publishing, A Real Story Created With Colorful Lines, tells his story of a young autistic man who overcame his difficulties through art and is illustrated with images of his work. He discusses his life experience being autistic and how he became a recognized visual artist.
RoAnna Sylver is passionate about stories that give hope, healing and even fun for LGBT, disabled and other marginalized people, and thinks we need a lot more. Aside from writing oddly optimistic dystopia books, RoAnna is an autistic blogger, artist, singer, and voice actor. This week RoAnna discussed her passion for creating neurodivergent characters in her writing.
Jim C. Hines is the author of twelve fantasy novels, including the Magic ex Libris series, the Princess series of fairy tale retellings, the humorous Goblin Quest trilogy, and the Fable Legends tie-in Blood of Heroes. He’s an active blogger, and won the 2012 Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer. This week he shared his experience as a parent of an 11-year-old on the autism spectrum.Jim reveals some of the ways he has learned to help his son develop his own unique identity.
Sarah Hendrickx is an independent specialist consultant and trainer in Autism Spectrum Conditions. Sarah is autistic with a late diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome in her 40s. She has a lifetime of personal experience of autism, its mental and physical impact and how to live with it and shares this during training along with her professional expertise.
She travels internationally and has delivered over 1000 autism training sessions and speaks at conferences worldwide She has also worked with more than 200 autistic individuals as a coach and consultant in care, schools, relationships and employment. Sarah has written 6 books on autism and related conditions. She was featured in a BBC Horizon documentary on autism.