Background

Ralph James Savarese, PhD, is the adoptive father of a now 15-year-old boy with autism, a boy thought profoundly retarded when he and his wife adopted him at the age of six.  The boy--DJ--is a straight "A" student in a regular classroom at the local high school where they live.  He uses a computer to speak and has begun a writing and speaking career of his own.  Savarese teaches American literature, creative writing, and disability studies at Grinnell College in Iowa.

Main Focus

Promoting the concept of neuro-diversity, making room in the world for all sorts of differences but especially autism, even "severe" autism.

Offerings

Lectures/talks/readings, sometimes with his son, that are designed to foster respect, inclusion, and love.

Publications

Savarese is the author of REASONABLE PEOPLE: A MEMOIR OF AUTISM AND ADOPTION, which NEWSWEEK called a "real life love story and an urgent manifesto for the rights of people with neurological disabilities."  It its first month of publication, it was chosen "book of the month" by the Autism Acceptance Project in Toronto, Canada.  In addition to NEWSWEEK, it received glowing reviews in GQ, BODY & SOUL, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, BOOKLIST, and countless autism and parenting publications.  He recently discussed his new book on the "Diane Rehm Show" (NPR), "The Exchange" (IPR), "Live at Prairie Lights" (IPR), and WNBC in New York.
Savarese's poems, essays, articles, translations, and opinion pieces have appeared, among other places, in American Poetry Review, Sewanee Review, Southwest Review, Southern Poetry Review, New England Review, Another Chicago Magazine, Beloit Poetry Journal, Modern Poetry In Translation, Prose Studies, Leviathan: A Journal of Melville Studies, Politics & Culture, the New York Times, the LA Times, the Baltimore Sun, the Atlanta Constitution Journal, the Houston Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News, the Cincinnati Post, and the Gainesville Sun.  He is the winner of the Hennig Cohen Prize from the Herman Melville Society for an "outstanding contribution to Melville scholarship," and the first chapter of Reasonable People received a "notable essay" designation in the Best American Essay series of 2004.

Availability

Available with his son in the summer and intermittently during the school year.  Very available by himself.

His website can be viewed here http://www.ralphsavarese.com