Autism: A Collection of Essays

Each of the seventeen essays published in 'Autism: A Collection of Essays' were originally published online. I wanted to publish them in a book as not everyone enjoys reading on a screen and to have something tangible to hold, make notes in or even fill up with post-it notes is something which brings so many people joy. The book is 400 pages long and that is a huge amount of reading to do via blogs! I know that so many people who have previously read the essays online (often multiple times) have been really excited to have them compiled into a book which can easily be cited, read, re-read and dipped into as and when needed. Taken together, in the new book format, these essays collectively trace how conversations around Autistic people have shifted over nearly a decade across society, culture, and academia, while also reflecting the evolution of my own thinking as I have written, learned, challenged and argued, listened, reflected and grown. In that sense, the book becomes a kind of map of the discourse itself: where we started, what needed to change, what has shifted, and what still urgently needs to change if experiences and life outcomes for ALL Autistic people are to genuinely i…