April is Autism Awareness/Acceptance month and over the month we’ve reflected on what makes joining Beyond the Spectrum different to joining other creative writing groups.
BTS Lead Writer Emma Robdale tells us about her new anthology, currently open for submissions. Its name takes inspiration from the iconic Girl Interrupted (1990), a film confronting difficult questions around the treatment and experience of Neurodivergent+ Women. Set in the 1960s, it followed the lives of women held in an asylum, many of which had been pathologized simply for failing feminine expectation; If they could not be ‘amended’, it was widely accepted that society would be better off without them …
Camille Aubry will be returning to the Beyond the Spectrum online festival in 2026, as our live illustrator at some of the sessions. We interview her, to find out more about her life and work.
Beyond the Spectrum has delivered hundreds of workshops and – crucially for readers – a string of anthologies that bottle the fizz of those sessions: their grit, humour, tenderness, and truth.
The 2026 Beyond the Spectrum Festival of Autistic creative writing, Words Unwound, will take place over a whole week, from Monday 23 to Saturday 28 March.
By Tara Singh In 2024, I sent my poetry manuscript to Five Leaves during their open window for submissions from underrepresented poets in the East Midlands. I hit “send” with a mixture of hesitation and hope. I told myself not to expect much—that rejection is
As the Beyond the Spectrum evolves – into its 5th year – we want to make sure that there is a way to stay involved, that it doesn’t all end after a year of writing together. This is where our Apprentice Groups come in: these are a new kind of Beyond the Spectrum group, designed to help you keep going, keep writing, and take your creativity further.
It’s strange, looking back, how a mask can be stitched so finely into your life that you forget where the mask ends, and skin begins.
The Beyond the Spectrum team at Writing East Midlands are delighted to share our new video, celebrating the programme, and Autistic creative writing.
Does autistic masking hinder your writing craft? Do you think about writing more than you write? Do you jump from project to project and never get anything finished to a satisfactory state? Welcome to the club, because this is me to a T.
Dr Clare Lawrence, Bishop Grosseteste University I was very fortunate in March to be one of the keynote speakers at Writing East Midlands’ Beyond the Spectrum Festival. This was a fascinating day of presentations and workshops around the subject of autism and creative writing. My
As part of the dedicated Beyond the Spectrum website, we have a new blog!
We’d love to use this as a place to share content from our participants, Lead and Shadow Writers, and everyone else in our community with something to say!