A Life Lived Differently

A poignant portrait of autism in verse and prose. The poet speaks in the voice of the autistic child, whose name is Dan. The prosaist speaks in the voice of the parent. This is a unique interpretation of the experience of living on the spectrum.

Although Dan is fictional, he is based on real people. Kathryn Jacobs, who identifies as autistic, writes his viewpoint in poetry which is both lyrical and down to earth. She is Dan, in writing and sometimes in emotional reality also. Rachel Jacobs writes as the mom and Dan's primary caregiver. Dan has a brother. His father is absent from the narrative. Dan's parents seem to be divorced and the pressure of parenting a special-needs child was part of it.

Dan may be fictional but there is no question that the portrayal of autism is real. Readers with firsthand experience 'feel seen'. Dan is loved. Perhaps this is why we are granted the privilege of entering his world.

This articulate portrayal of autism opens a door to the world and experiences of a child who faces the challenges we all do but sees and understands in a different way. At times amusing, sometimes wry, often surprising, this account offers an unparalleled view into living on the spectrum. This collection of poetry and prose is being enthusiastically welcomed by autists, their caregivers, families, friends, and by teachers.

You don't have to have autism or have personal experience with it to enjoy the poetry and prose in this book. All you need is an interest in A Life Lived Differently. Understanding related behaviors such as masking, stimming, and being overwhelmed by sensory stimulation will uncover further layers in the book's contents, but the poems and stories are also beautifully written from a literary perspective.

This book celebrates the strength and beauty of a unique individual living with neurodiversity/Autism and offers sometimes startling and often heartwarming insights into one such life.

Kathryn Jacobs is a nomad who travels about the country in an RV, writing poetry and editing the metrical poetry journal The Road Not Taken. A retired professor, she is almost certainly on the spectrum, and likes it like that. In her former life she was a medievalist at Texas A&M-C.Along the way she wore various hats, as most of us do sooner or later. In her youth she took a masters from the University of Michigan and a doctorate from Harvard, after which she published a scholarly book with the University Press of Florida called Marriage Contracts From Chaucer to the Renaissance Stage. Finally, and in between all that, she married, divorced, remarried, had three children, and lost one (Raymond Jacobs, 18). Life is what you make of it -

Rachel Jacobs lives in Chicago proper with one husband, three kids, one sister, two dogs, and one cat. Some of the housemates are autistic, but the pets are probably not. In between having a family and writing for fun, they have a fulltime job editing proposals.Rachel spent almost 20 years writing and editing textbooks. They started off with a post college job at McGraw Hill, lost it in the Great Recession, and then managed to support three children as a freelance editor for the intervening years. Recently Rachel gave up on educational publishing and moved to the government services industry.