Week two of the semester and I’m already totally overwhelmed. The course I’m teaching is going well, and my students are charming, but I feel like I can’t quite find my feet. I hope that once the course settles into a nice workshopping rhythm, I’ll feel a bit more on top of things. This is quite likely my last time teaching poetry writing — at least, the last time teaching at this school, in this format — and I’d like to come out of it not feeling totally depleted.

I had a wonderful chat last week with producer and Joeita Gupta at The Pulse about my recent article on the disability memoir. That interview should be up before too long. I’ll post about it here when I have more information.

Currently reading May Tomorrow Be Awake: On Poetry, Autism, and Our Neurodiverse Future by Chris Martin (American poet and educator and not, so far as I can tell, lead singer of popular English rock band Coldplay). I was a little worried when the book came out that there would be too much overlap between my dissertation and what Martin’s writing about, and that all my groundbreaking theory* wouldn’t feel so groundbreaking any more, but Martin and I are actually doing quite different things; he’s focusing much more on the act of writing poetry than I am, and I’m looking more at the act of reading. So, actually, it’s perfect. I’m delighted. There are some brilliant passages in the bit I’ve read so far. I’m very glad it came out in time for me to be able to refer to it in the dissertation.

Now I’m just waiting for Pete Wharmby’s book What I Want to Talk About: How Autistic Special Interests Shape a Life to appear on my doorstep, because I’m desperate for some non-pathologizing literature to cite in my methodology chapter and I have a feeling this is going to be just the thing. I’ve really been enjoying Wharmby’s YouTube channel for a lot of reasons, not least of which is the prominent display of an awesome LEGO collection.

*I mean, is it? Probably not, but if my committee thinks it is, then that’s cool with me.