Sangha of Auspicious Companions

Non-Speaking Autistic Novelist on His Journey From Write-off to Writer

Woody Brown is a great writer. He graduated with top writing honors from UCLA, and completed his master’s at Columbia University. At age 28, he published his highly reviewed first book, Upward Bound. The book reveals the inner lives of neurotypical “clients” and those who care for them at an adult day care center. Woody is able to see this inner world because in early childhood, autistic and non-speaking, he was written off as a “lost cause,” a “no-hoper.” His parents could see something else. With persistence and help, his Mom found he could spell at the age of three. She got him a letterboard so he could communicate, and he and his talents burgeoned with another new book in the works. While he has and continues to face many challenges, Woody focuses on what is essential. “I want people to read my book, not out of pity but because it is good,” and he wants to reach “the hordes who underestimate and infantilize us, and show them how vivid and magnificent we are.”

Be The Change

Develop a practice to see with your heart, to listen with your heart, for what is essential.