Publishers Weekly
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Poet and educator Martin (Things to Do in Hell) braids contemporary neurological research and literary theory in this eloquent reflection on his experience teaching poetry to neurodiverse students. Through his students’ poems and endearing anecdotes, Martin, himself a neurodiverse person, seeks to help readers dismantle their conceptions of being “normal”—“to let fall away like the oppressive husk it really is”—and to open their minds to other ways of being and interacting with the world. He gives readers glimpses into his nearly 20 years of sessions with a dozen students, most of them nonspeaking teenagers with autism, to explain how a neurodiverse student’s initial reluctance to engage with poetry can lead to gracefully patterned writing. As he analyzes his students’ work—highlighting often technically impressive and emotionally poignant poems—he lucidly examines the ways in which they confront societal perceptions of and challenges related to neurodiversity (for one student, “the most difficult aspect of writing is falling into the concentrated physical stillness necessary to type”), as well as broader issues like gender, race, and, most recently, surviving the changes wrought by the pandemic. Martin’s narration is empathetic and charming, and his students’ writings combine to offer moving, intelligent, and insightful pathways for understanding different minds. The result brilliantly proves that nonverbal doesn’t always mean voiceless. (Aug.)

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Intimate portraits of neurodivergence.Poet and educator Martin draws on more than 20 years of experience with autistic students to offer insights about how best to teach, inspire, and learn from them. Although he describes himself as a White male who can selectively pass as cis, straight, able, and neurotypical, in high school, Martin was diagnosed with ADHD, a neurodivergence he shares with his mother. I have come to foreground neurodivergence in my way of moving through the world, he writes. The reality of neurodivergence, he has found, contrasts with some commonly held assumptions: for example, that individuals with autism lack empathy or theory of mind, the ability to imagine what someone else is thinking or feeling. They dont just experience empathy on levels equal to their neurotypical peers, writes Martin, but in many cases exceed them. The authors approach to teaching is far different from the widely used applied behavior analysis therapy, which involves rewards and punishments for learning certain activities and behaviors. One student, who began ABA therapy at the age of 20 months, by age 3 appeared to have settled into a form of deep interiority that lasted for 17 years. Martins appreciative portraits of his studentsand his close readings of their poemsprovide ample evidence of how poetry writing spoke to their needs, abilities, and desires. Over time, he writes, I began to discern how poetrys patterned structure uniquely serves neurodivergent thinkingand vice versasomething Id discovered in my own creative investigations. Poetrys formalized repetition and sensory detail offered autistic students a fertile linguistic outlet. Martins message is not only about unleashing the potential of autistic individuals, but about creating a world where different modes of movement, of communication, of being and signing and pointing and singing and ticcing and typing affords all people a new vision of what it means to be human.A sensitive celebration of neuroscientific difference. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Intimate portraits of neurodivergence. Poet and educator Martin draws on more than 20 years of experience with autistic students to offer insights about how best to teach, inspire, and learn from them. Although he describes himself as “a White male who can selectively pass as cis, straight, able, and neurotypical,” in high school, Martin was diagnosed with ADHD, a neurodivergence he shares with his mother. “I have come to foreground neurodivergence in my way of moving through the world,” he writes. The reality of neurodivergence, he has found, contrasts with some commonly held assumptions: for example, that individuals with autism lack empathy or “theory of mind,” the ability to imagine what someone else is thinking or feeling. They “don’t just experience empathy on levels equal to their neurotypical peers,” writes Martin, “but in many cases exceed them.” The author’s approach to teaching is far different from the widely used applied behavior analysis therapy, which involves rewards and punishments for learning certain activities and behaviors. One student, who began ABA therapy at the age of 20 months, by age 3 “appeared to have settled into a form of deep interiority” that lasted for 17 years. Martin’s appreciative portraits of his students—and his close readings of their poems—provide ample evidence of how poetry writing spoke to their needs, abilities, and desires. “Over time,” he writes, “I began to discern how poetry’s patterned structure uniquely serves neurodivergent thinking—and vice versa—something I’d discovered in my own creative investigations.” Poetry’s formalized repetition and sensory detail offered autistic students a fertile linguistic outlet. Martin’s message is not only about unleashing the potential of autistic individuals, but about creating a world where “different modes of movement, of communication, of being and signing and pointing and singing and ticcing and typing” affords all people a new vision “of what it means to be human.” A sensitive celebration of neuroscientific difference. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.