Books Written By Autistic Authors – Political journalist Eric Garcia has autism and is writing his new book We Are Not Broken to “hopefully debunk the various myths” about the condition. In the introduction, he notes that such myths abound: that autism only affects white men; there is a link between autism and violent behavior; that autistic people are only able to work in technology; that they do not form relationships or live independently. Although the book has elements of a memoir, Garcia says her experience is just one small detail in a much bigger picture of many people who “suffer in a world that punishes them for not following its rules. ” Below, Garcia talks about the deep importance of public policy, her reporter instincts, the soundtrack to her writing, and more.
I was at National Journal in 2015 and I went to my editor, Richard Just, and I said, “I think we’re focusing too much on curing autistic people instead of helping them.” This piece was published in December 2015, so my agent got in touch to ask if I wanted to turn it into a book.
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The next logical question for me was: What would it look like if you stopped treating autistic people and tried to find them jobs? I went to Michigan, Tennessee, West Virginia, California Bay Area to see what the gaps are for people with autism and what can be done to improve their lives. I want people to stop laughing at the idea that autistic people are the ultimate experts on their experiences. I wanted to destroy that idea.
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I learned how big the LGBTQ+ community is in the autism community. I’ve been to a lot of autism events with a lot of L.G.B.T.Q.+ people, but I didn’t think, “This is a thing.” However, if you look at the data, there are more autistic people who identify as LGBTQ.+ than neurotypical people.
Another thing was that the increase in autism diagnoses was not only caused by changes in the DSM [Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the book used in the medical field to classify conditions] in the 1980s, but also because the ‘Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 included autism as a disability and that meant schools had to report how many students they served. That created the larger thesis of my book, because it said that the whole reason people like me—I was born in 1990—had to have resources was because of conscious public policy decisions. It made me realize that my life has changed significantly because of it. I went to private school in the 7th grade, but before that I went to public schools and got accommodations that I wouldn’t have otherwise. And in college I got tutoring and disability services. They were A.D.A. Our lives are often defined by things beyond our control. People like to talk about personal responsibility and personal choices, but my ability to determine my own destiny was due to conscious public policy decisions that were not made beforehand.
Originally, I wanted to be much more ambitious. I wanted to focus internationally, to report on the world. But due to time constraints and then the pandemic, things changed.
Autism Acceptance Month
My impulse is always to report. With all due respect—because I have many friends who have written excellent memoirs about autism—I felt that my story was compelling, but it is not the whole story. Even though I wrote a book with a lot of my personal life in it, I’m generally a very private person and I feel like there are certain things I don’t like to share. And there are also things that I don’t think are indicative of the whole autistic experience. I wanted to be as complete as possible.
If you read the chapter titles in the book, many of them come from songs. I wanted to be a musician when I grew up, so I was inspired by Black Sabbath as I was by journalists like Steve Silberman or Ta-Nehisi Coates or Rebecca Traister. I am equally influenced by Bob Dylan’s lyrics or N.W.A. as I by Woodward and Bernstein. When I have a deadline, I tend to listen to really aggressive music: The Ramones, Metallica, The Misfits, Public Enemy. When I wrote ‘We’re Not Broken’, listening to jazz music really helped me through. John Coltrane contributed the last three chapters of the book.
Whether you know it or not, you know someone with autism. We often talk about autism by talking about autistic people in the past tense. I tried to include as many voices as possible and cover as many people as possible. If you really care about autistic people, listen to what they need.
Understanding Autism For Dummies: Shore, Stephen, Rastelli, Linda G., Grandin, Temple: 9780764525476: Amazon.com: Books
A version of this article is printed in the New York edition, section C, page 6, under the headline: He has autism. That’s not the whole story.. Order Reprint | Today’s book | Order We’ve created a list of great books written by predominantly autistic authors that represent a range of experiences, stories and voices. We used the first language of identity (autistic) in accordance with current best practice, unless an autistic author used a different term in their work.
We are proud to have worked with Autistic UK to create this book list. Autistic UK is an Autistic People’s Organization (APO) – an organization for autistic people, run by autistic people. It aims to promote the interests of all people with autism and related neurodevelopmental disorders, to promote and protect the civil and human rights of the autistic population, and to implement legislation to protect their rights. Find out more at Autistic UK atautisticuk.orgor and follow them on Twitter.
Please note that the titles on this list are recommendations from the Reading Partners programme, our publishing partner and Autistic UK, rather than professionally endorsed recommendations. This list was not compiled through our Reading Well program and its book selection methodology.
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In an effort to open up equal opportunities for people to become readers, we cooperate with a large number of partners from the public, private and voluntary sectors. Author Helen Hoang talks about Sex, Autism and Freedom: Code-switching This summer, Code-switching is with a laser. – focuses on books that teach us freedom. Today we’re talking to a romance writer whose own identity has contributed to a rich cast of characters.
This summer at Code Switch, we’re talking to some of our favorite authors about the books that taught us the different dimensions of freedom. Earlier this week
, was recently diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Trying to make sense of the diagnosis for herself, she drew from her own life experiences and put them into a romance that describes the love of Stella, a young woman on the autism spectrum.
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Which came from Hoang’s personal experiences. Another main character, Michael, is Asian American like Hoang and has experienced the same challenging family dynamics, with the parent not always making the best decisions.
The book was published in 2018, but I discovered it at the height of the pandemic. I was excited to read something that took my mind off all the doom and gloom. As soon as I picked it up, I couldn’t put it down. It’s pretty steamy – I felt a little weird re-reading it for “work”. But in the hours I read it, it freed me from the panic of living in lockdown. So on a recent episode of the Code Switch podcast, Hoang and I talked about it
So this book is about the heroine, an autistic woman named Stella, who thinks she’s bad at relationships and sex. To get better, she decides to hire a male chaperone, Matthew, to tell her how to do things. And in the process, they accidentally fall in love. I think the book has a few things going for it: It’s clear that the autism angle is something that hasn’t been done many times in romance. And I’m not the first, but I had never read a book with an Asian hero, or at least
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This book definitely felt like an escape for me. As a romance writer, was it important to you to write a book that felt like an escape for your readers?
I believe that romance is an escape. It means taking yourself out of real life and focusing on different things and experiencing things that you don’t in real life. I think that is the strength of romance and what makes it such a positive experience. Because it frees you from everything and just gives you a chance to celebrate emotions and celebrate the human experience.
Many people have preconceived notions about autistic people and how they should behave
Author Eric Garcia Is Changing The Conversation Around Autism With His New Book
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