Helen McCabe - Siblings and Autism: Stories Spanning Generations and Cultures

Siblings and Autism

Stories Spanning Generations and Cultures

Edited by Debra Cumberland and Bruce Mills

Jessica Kingsley Publishers

London and Philadelphia

A version of Visiting Becky by Anne Clinard Barnhill was originally published in At Home in the Land of Oz: Autism, My Sister, and Me, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2007.

Debra Cumberlands Sirens originally appeared in Under the Sun 12 (Summer 2007): 818.

Parts of Katie Harrington Stricklins On the Way to the Sky appeared in Dougs Aria: A Sisters Note on Autism, published in Spectrum: For the Autism and Developmentally Disabled Community, April/May 2010, and is published with permission of Spectrum Publications (spectrumpublications.com).

Excerpts from William Faulkners The Sound and the Fury contained in Erica Naness Family Reasemblance come from the Vintage (Division of Random House) publication of the novel, and are reproduced with permission.

First published in 2011
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Copyright Jessica Kingsley Publishers 2011

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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Siblings and autism : stories spanning generations and cultures / edited by Bruce Mills and Debra Cumberland.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-84905-831-5 (alk. paper)

1. Autistic children--Family relationships. 2. Autism--Patients--Family relationships. 3. Brothers and sisters. I. Mills, Bruce, 1958- II. Cumberland, Debra.

RJ506.A9S5266 2011

618.9285882--dc22

2010019256

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 84905 831 5

ISBN pdf eBook 978 0 85700 295 2

eISBN 978 0 85700 295 2

Debra Cumberland
For my parents and for my brother

Bruce Mills
For Sarah Holtapp Mills

Contents

Acknowledgments

Debra Cumberland

Winona State University provided me with a sabbatical, which proved instrumental in allowing me the time to finish the project. I would like to thank my department chair Ruth Forsythe and my colleagues for their support. I would particularly like to acknowledge the assistance of Linda Kukowski and Kimberly Vogt.

Bruce Mills

I would like to thank Kalamazoo College for the sabbatical that, in part, contributed the time to develop the project and for the developmental money to advertise the call for essays. I am also indebted to those individuals who have graduated from or are currently attending Kalamazoo College, siblings who have shared their stories about life with a family member on the autism spectrum or with other physical or developmental disabilities: Sarah Bretz, Michael Tressler, Laura Mannion, Elizabeth Davis, Carolyn DeWitt, Claire Madill, Catherine Stover, Emily Bair, and Maddie Gillentine. Though it is hard to single out any one of the many wonderful students, I wish to thank Lindsey Fisch for initiating an independent study on sibling narratives and the joint learning that emerged from it. Finally, I am grateful for the help of colleague Dr. Babli Sinha who provided a contact for the Autism Society of India.

Deb and I both trace our investment in this project to the fall 2005 conference Autism and Representation: Writing, Cognition, Disability, sponsored by the Society for Critical Exchange and organized, with the help of many certainly, through the tireless efforts of Mark Osteen. For the many who attended, this conference brought forth and produced an empathetic scholarship that has led to enduring professional connections, personal friendships, and essential scholarship. In addition, we would like to thank Sandra L. Harris, Donald Meyer, and Vicki Forman, who, at early stages in this project, provided helpful advice and/or assistance in circulating the call for essays.

And, of course, we are indebted to Rachel Menzies and Victoria Peters at Jessica Kingsley Publishers for their helpful editorial assistance and for Jessica Kingsleys commitment to this project and the many other publications doing such good work in and for the autism community.