{"id":2185,"date":"2015-04-01T09:00:23","date_gmt":"2015-04-01T13:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/?p=2185"},"modified":"2020-11-04T15:40:01","modified_gmt":"2020-11-04T15:40:01","slug":"autism-on-the-page-an-introduction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/2015\/04\/01\/autism-on-the-page-an-introduction\/","title":{"rendered":"Autism on the Page: An Introduction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, we kick off our Autism on the Page<\/strong> event: throughout all of April, we’re hosting autistic contributors who will talk about tropes, misconceptions, representation, and their thoughts on middle grade and young adult books featuring autistic characters.<\/p>\n

April is, of course, Autism Awareness Month. During a month like this, in a literary community like the kidlit world, it’s logical to discuss autistic representation in fiction. Autistic narrators have been dubbed a trend, and however cringe-worthy that designation may be \u2014 more on that later this month! \u2014 it’s true that there has been a minor explosion in “autism books” over the past decade. Autistic narrators. Autistic siblings. Autistic best friends. Sometimes those characters’ autism plays a central role, sometimes not.<\/p>\n

In all cases, it’s worth discussing. Representation, as we all know, has a huge effect on readers. Good effects, bad effects. Mirrors and windows.<\/p>\n

This month, we wanted to give our communities a central place to talk about these portrayals. A central place to discuss and learn about the good, the bad, and the actually-it’s-not-so-straightforward. Our contributors range from published and aspiring authors, to activists, to reviewers, to eager readers.\u00a0They\u00a0won’t always agree with each other. One person may hate a certain trope; another may not mind it. One person may adore a certain book; another may cringe and wonder, “But what about the part where …”<\/p>\n

We’re not here to give you one final verdict. We’re here, simply, to give you another perspective \u2014 but that perspective is one that’s vitally important, and one that many people outside of the disability community are, sadly, not familiar with. The MG and YA communities have precious few openly autistic voices, and in the wider world, autistic voices are rarely given airtime, particularly when they criticize how people treat and depict us. Instead, people will only hear the inspiring, tragic, and \u2014 yes \u2014 heavily skewed stories.<\/p>\n

This goes double for Autism Awareness Month.<\/p>\n

For many autistic people, this month has become something to dread. Too often, it’s a time where non-autistic voices will speak for us and be applauded for doing so; a time where our conditions are centered, but our lives, identities, and own thoughts on that condition are discarded; a time where integral parts of ourselves are held up as tragedies, as something to pity, minimize, and cure.<\/p>\n

This is always our reality, but in April, it’s everywhere.<\/p>\n

However we may feel about our conditions \u2014 and, from loving to loathing, these opinions are equally valid \u2014 we need to be able to express that ourselves. We need nuance, understanding, and self-advocacy. This month, please center autistic voices, and think twice before supporting others who would deign to speak for us.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tBUY ON BOOKSHOP<\/span>\n\t\t\t\tBOOKSHOP<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t& support independent bookstores\n\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/article> \n\n\t<\/center><\/div>That’s what we want to accomplish here. Give autistic people a place to discuss our own representation. Let others hear directly from us instead of the narratives they’re bombarded with in both fiction and other media.<\/p>\n

And, in doing so, we’re building an invaluable canon of autistic commentary on children’s fiction. What is<\/em> the deal with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time<\/em>? Why do so many protagonists display autistic traits, but the word is never used to describe them? What of modern classics like Rules<\/em>\u00a0and Mockingbird<\/em>, or recent award winners like Rain Reign<\/em>? How can autism affect autistic authors? And what is one common mistake that non-autistic authors make when depicting autistic characters?<\/p>\n

We’ll discuss all that, and far more besides. We invite you to join us in the comments, on Twitter<\/a>, and on Tumblr<\/a>. We invite media to spread the word and come talk to us<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Welcome to Autism on the Page<\/strong>. Let’s talk books.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During April 2015, we’re holding an event dubbed Autism on the Page<\/strong>. Why is this event important? And what can you expect from us?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_generate-full-width-content":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":""},"categories":[57,56],"tags":[140],"genre":[],"age_category":[],"disability":[7],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2185"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2185\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2185"},{"taxonomy":"genre","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/genre?post=2185"},{"taxonomy":"age_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/age_category?post=2185"},{"taxonomy":"disability","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/disability?post=2185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}