Essays Wanted For New Book on Autism

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Voices from the Spectrum: Parents, people with autism, grandparents, siblings, friends, and professionals share their wisdom
Edited by Cindy N Ariel, PhD and Robert A Naseef, PhD

Cindy Ariel and Robert Naseef are proud to announce our contract with Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London. For this book, parents, people with autism, grandparents, siblings, friends, and professionals of various disciplines are invited to write about their experiences. We want to hear lessons of mind and heart culled from life and professional practice. In the essays, authors are asked to address how autism has changed your life in love and/or work, what you have learned, and what you would want others to know that would help them. We are interested in situations from the most mild to the most severe - from classic autism to Asperger syndrome.

Think about these questions while you are writing your essay:

What experiences would you like to share?
What do you want others to understand better about you, or about autism-this may include issues such as diagnosis, treatment options, relationships, etc?
What were some of the turning points, if any, in your journey?
How did autism influence or even change you, your work, or your relationships with others?
Here are specific guidelines for essays:

Please write an essay of about 1500 words, or less. Add a biography of about 100 words that would follow the essay. At the end, include your mailing address, telephone number, and email.
Please submit your essay as an attachment in Microsoft Word to an email or paste your essay into the body of your email. Send to: [email protected]
If you submit your essay by regular mail, please double space the text and send a disk as well. Please send the printed copy and disk to:
Cindy Ariel, PhD
Alternative Choices
514 South 4th Street
Philadelphia
PA 19147
USA
If you are interested in this writing opportunity, please respond with a brief email indicating your intent, your name, and your relationship to autism
Deadline: all essays are to be received by August 15, 2004.
Please forward this announcement to anyone you think might be interested.
Biographies

Cindy N. Ariel, PhD, is a psychologist in independent practice. She is the co-founder and director of Alternative Choices, an independent psychotherapy practice which includes a Special Families Resource Center. The resource center provides information, referral, and guidance to families that include a member with special needs. Dr. Ariel has extensive experience working with individuals with special needs and their families.

Robert Naseef, PhD, is a psychologist, author and father of an adult child with autism. His highly regarded book 'Special children, challenged parents: The struggles and rewards of parenting a child with a disability', has received international recognition. He has appeared on radio and television. Dr. Naseef's specialty is working with families of children with special needs. He also has a special interest and expertise in the psychology of men and fatherhood.

About the publishers

Jessica Kingsley Publishers Ltd
116 Pentonville Road
London
N1 9JB

Thanks for posting info about this, Greg... I tried to check out more info about the publishing house and the authors (compilers? What would they be called in a situation like this? Are they serving as editors too? Anyhoo...), and apparently they have already published several books on Autism and other conditions... lalala...

http://www.jkp.com/catalogue/

Look at their Asperger's wing. Seems to be one of the more extensive collections I've seen from a given bookhouse.

Hmmmmmm... anyone else heard of them before?

Hey Torley

No - I haven't read anything by them personally; the extract came from the National Autistic Society, UK website - www.nas.org.uk . I ran a search on Google for Dr Robert Naseef - he is quite prolific.

Okay, good, thx... so it's not a fly-by-night thing... apologies if I sound cynical in that regard, it is partially because of the deceptive spam marketing I have seen all-too-often in recent years. But I will check this out some more.

Absolutely - I would not have given it a great deal of consideration if it were not solicited by a reputable organisation. Cynicism is encouraged! You might try emailing one of the editors, Cindi Ariel, for the answers;

[email protected]

Go well old son

Indeed. Awaiting response

I'm definately going to decide to write an essay for them. I'm not sure on whether I'm going to answer all the questions they are looking for though.
Should I simply write my entire life story complete with all my emotions and experiences that I've gone through? It's not going to be like an autobiography because that would just be bland For example I'm not going to start with nonsense like "My name is Ashley and I was born on November 19, 1988." because that's incredibly lame.
I basically want to write about all my opinions (nothing that's irrlevant to the essay) , feelings and experiences in one essay.
How do I do all of that without ignoring what they are looking for?

I am unsure of further details as I have not heard back from Cindy yet, and you don't have to make it an autobiography -- but as you have already elaborated on several instances, some events in your life could be included. That would be fine. And the "My name is Ashley" part... well, if that's really how you express yourself and feel comfortable with it, then go ahead. I believe the book will be edited anyhow (and I hope they of course retain the sense of unique prose flowing from the original authors) but I recommend you should write to them too and see what they say to you in response to your question.

Several of the really good books I've read about Asperger's are published by this company - they seem to be very interested in the subject . . .