Donna Williams, The Author

"Breezy" by Donna Williams
"Breezy" by Donna Williams

"Those who have read any of Donna Williams' books will know that she is one of the most articulate and perceptive writers on autism today."

- The Guardian, Sept 2006

How Many Readers?

I've directly sold around 1 million new copies. But my books have been read far more broadly than that. Whilst authors don't earn anything from the sale of second hand copies of their books, around half as many people who have bought them new have bought second hand copies. Most people who've bought one or more of my books (new or second hand) report they have loaned them to between 2-10 people. Around a quarter of my readers have read more than one of my books and many have several, some have all 10.  Around 10-20 times the number of people who have bought a new or second hand copy or loaned a copy from a friend, have borrowed one or more from a library. Based on those who only borrowed 1 of my 10 published books (some libraries have a copy of 1, 2, 4, sometimes the whole 10 and I have heard waiting lists to borrow a library copy) this would bring the conservative estimated number of people who have read at least one of my books to around 40-200 million readers.

 

Autie-biographies

Why write about oneself?  Everyone has a different reason; to hope, to survive, to shout, to stay sane, to document a journey through vast landscapes of change...

Poetry, prose and art:

My most natural language is gesture, movement, music and art but my most natural verbal poetry, that world between words and music where the two dance together on the page.language is  It was this language of indirectness, this speaking in 'poetry', that emerged in mid to late childhood and developed alongside 'standard language' later on.  I'm told I use words like an elastic band, and coming from a background where I largely lacked 'functional language' till late childhood (I could sing, recite advertisements and jingles, regurgitate TV scripts from sit-coms and had 'my own language') I feel this served me well to make me an eccentric writer and one who uses words like Pollock and Klimt use paint.

Self Help and Professional Training:

I'm not an expert. I'm a social philosopher. As a sociologist, teacher and researcher, I try to avoid talking about pathology and look at processes. I take a stance closer to that of social psychology and raise the issues and perspectives that scientists then explore. My text books have become foundation texts in special education and psychology courses and have dramatically influenced the treatment, education and educational environments of people on the autistic spectrum since 1996.

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