Cammie mcgovern biography children

Cammie McGovern Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Interview

A Conversation with Cammie McGovern about her book Eye Contact and her experience as the mother of an autistic son.

Like Cara, you are also the mother of an autistic child. To what extent did your own experiences inform your writing?

Cammie mcgovern biography wikipedia Cammie McGovern is the author of HARD LANDINGS, a memoir about the transition her oldest son, who has autism, made into adult services. She has also written three books for young adults, SAY WHAT YOU WILL, A STEP TOWARD FALLING, and JUST BREATHE, and three books for middle-grade readers, JUST MY LUCK, CHESTER AND GUS, and FRANKIE AND AMELIA.

What, if any, misgivings and difficulties did you encounter in approaching such a personal subject through fiction?

About four years ago, I started writing a nonfiction account of our experience in the early years just before and after our son's diagnosis of autism. It's a time when you feel frantic to be doing as much as possible because everyone tells you the early years are the most important, but no one can say with any certainty what that help should look like or which therapies will work best for you child.

I used to devour every account I could find of parents in a similar situation, looking for clues, for children who resembled my son and for what strategies worked best.

Cammie mcgovern biography When Cammie was seven years old, her father accepted a teaching position with UCLA School of Law and the McGoverns moved to Los Angeles. Her paternal grandfather was adventurer William Montgomery McGovern, her maternal great-grandfathers were U.S. diplomat Ethelbert Watts and Admiral Charles P. Snyder, and her maternal great-great-grandfather.

Eventually, as we emerged from that time, I thought it might be a service to other parents to write about our own story and the discoveries we'd made, often by trial and error and muddling through a lot of mistakes. The more I wrote, though, the more I realized how hard it is to write a memoir well and sustain a narrative that doesn't have a clear ending in place.

I'd already published one novel and many

Full Interview

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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Cammie McGovern but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.


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  • Cris Beam

    Cris Beam is the author of Transparent and has written for public radio's This American Life, as well as for several national magazines.

    Cammie mcgovern author Cammie McGovern is the author of two books for young adults, SAY WHAT YOU WILL and A STEP TOWARD FALLING, and two books for middle-grade readers, JUST MY LUCK and CHESTER AND GUS. All feature young people with a variety of disabilities at the center.

    She has an MFA in writing from Columbia and teaches creative writing at Columbia, NYU, (more)

  • Barbara D'Amato

    Barbara D'Amato is a playwright, novelist, and crime researcher. She began writing full-time in , first co-writing plays with her husband, Anthony D'Amato.

    After trying different genres, her first published novel in (more)

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  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $50 for 12 months or $18 for 3 months.

  • More about membership!