How To Be Autistic

An urgent, funny, shocking, and impassioned memoir by the winner of the Spectrum Art Prize 2018, How To Be Autistic presents the rarely shown point of view of someone living with autism.

Poe’s voice is confident, moving and often funny, as they reveal to us a very personal account of autism, mental illness, gender and sexual identity.

As we follow Charlotte’s journey through school and college, we become as awestruck by their extraordinary passion for life as by the enormous privations that they must undergo to live it. From food and fandom, to body modification and comic conventions, Charlotte’s experiences through the torments of schooldays and young adulthood leave us with a riot of conflicting emotions: horror, empathy, despair, laugh-out-loud amusement and, most of all, respect.

For Charlotte, autism is a fundamental aspect of their art and identity. They address their readers in a voice that is direct, sharply clever and ironic. They witness their own behaviour with a wry humour as they sympathise with those who care for them, yet all the while challenging the narratives of autism as something to be ‘fixed’.

‘I wanted to show the side of autism that you don’t find in books and on Facebook. My story is about survival, fear and, finally, hope. There will be parts that make you want to cover your eyes, but I beg you to read on, because if I can change just one person’s perceptions, if I can help one person with autism feel like they’re less alone, then this will all be worth it.’

This is an exuberant, inspiring, life-changing insight into autism from a viewpoint almost entirely missing from public discussion.

‘A passionate, hugely articulate argument for the acceptance of difference. Every teacher, every parent, every person should read this book.’- Meg Rosoff, author of How I Live Now

‘Raw and remarkable.’- The Guardian

‘Shows us both the desperate and bleak angle to autism, as well as the beautiful side.’ - Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, Director, Autism Research Centre, Cambridge University

Author Biography

Charlotte Amelia Poe is a self-taught artist and writer living in Lowestoft, Suffolk. They also work with video, and won the inaugural Spectrum Art Prize with the film they submitted, ‘How To Be Autistic’.

Myriad published Charlotte’s memoir, How To Be Autistic, in September 2019. In 2020 How To Be Autistic won the memoir and biography category, East Anglian Book Awards, and was runner-up of the ALCS Educational Writers’ Award.

Charlotte uses they/them pronouns.