Alessandra Leone reviews the Beyond the Spectrum Anthologies so far…

When Writing East Midlands launched Beyond the Spectrum (BTS) in 2020, the idea was simple and radical at once: create an autistic-led space where autistic writers of all ages can write, share, and be heard. Five years on, the project 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.

These collections aren’t a side-product; they’re part of the heartbeat of the programme. Each year’s groups work towards publication, assembling poems and short prose that reflect both the writers’ craft and the community that formed around it.

The BTS site now keeps two pages for easy browsing: a Library of Anthologies with the newest titles, and an Archive (2021-2024) that charts how the series has evolved. Together, they read like a timeline of growing confidence.

A quick tour through the shelves

Scan the Archive (2021-2024) and you’ll find the project’s early landmarks. There’s Beyond the First Spectrum Anthology (2021) for adult writers; later, 2023 blossoms into multiple strands – Talking Shadows, Picking Out Thorns, Nelson’s Noises, and This Room is Just For Now – reflecting how the programme scaled and diversified across different workshop leaders and cohorts. Young writers weren’t left behind: Beyond The Spectrum First Anthology (2021) for 10 – 17-year-olds paved the way for Perching on Wires, The Declaration, Mythical Friends, and the collaborative onebillion voices (all 2023). The entries are bite-sized on the page, but they hint at big, busy spaces full of drafts, prompts, laughter, and new friendships.

Recent years add a fresh wave. In 2024, Rhyme & Reason arrives as a special anthology responding to research by Nottingham Trent University psychologists into the benefits of BTS – turning data points into living poems and performance. In 2025, the Library showcases new collections – Us, Words in Flight, The Things That Tug At Me, Hope & Strength, Taking Off the Mask, and Earthlings and Aliens – spanning adult groups and young writers and signalling that publication is now embedded in the project’s annual rhythm. A special anthology Flowers I Never Asked For was also created with work from all Lincolnshire-based groups and guest edited by Amy Acre.

Why these anthologies matter (and who they’re for)

BTS is explicit about its ethos: by and for autistic writers, led by autistic professionals, and designed so writers can bring their whole selves to the page – no masking required. The anthologies turn that ethos into something you can read, feel, share, hold, lend, gift, or dog-ear. They also widen the circle; a reader who can’t make a workshop still gets to meet the voices inside. As the BTS home page puts it, since 2020 the programme has supported autistic writers through free creative-writing groups and has published multiple collections – the anthologies being one of the most visible outcomes.

A launch event for Rhyme & Reason at Beeston Library in Notts in March 2024 highlighted that point: research findings became themed performances, the room was set up to be neurodivergent-friendly, and every attendee left with a printed anthology. It’s poetry as wellbeing: nurturing voice, community, and visibility.

Rhyme & Reason: a research meeting lyric

Because Rhyme & Reason is tied to academic work, it’s also a useful lens on what BTS does. The anthology’s description lists five themes distilled from Nottingham Trent University’s research – “It’s Tough Out There,” “Community,” “All Autistic, All Different,” “Confidence,” and “Understanding Autism.” Lead writers and participants contributed new work responding to those threads, making the book a conversation between evidence and experience. The result is a collection you can read two ways: as poetry, and as a set of lived case studies in verse.

What you’ll hear inside these books

• Range of tone. The anthologies house raw confessionals beside surreal flights and comic pieces. Titles like Talking Shadows or Picking Out Thorns signal depth; Perching on Wires and Mythical Friends hint at play. The variety pushes back against stereotypes, letting autistic writers define themselves page by page.

• Place and belonging. BTS is a Writing East Midlands initiative, and place keeps sneaking into the poems – East Midlands libraries, quiet living rooms; bus routes; the Lincolnshire coast, the Beeston launch event made that regional anchoring literal. Anthologies let those local textures travel.

• Craft honed in company. The collections are group portraits. Workshop leaders – poets like Pippa Hennessy, Anna Cotton, Sabrina Mei-Li Smith, Jay Sandhu, Aoife Mannix and others – guide sessions whose energy is visible in the finished pages. The blurbs credit their roles; the poems bear the fingerprints of prompts, peer feedback, and shared courage.

How to get them (and why you should)

If you’re anthology-curious, start with the Library of Anthologies page and the Archive to choose your route. For a current-and-context read, try Rhyme & Reason, which you can buy directly via BTS/Writing East Midlands; it’s a strong gateway because it braids research and a creative response and includes writers and lead poets central to the project’s recent years. From there, let curiosity pull you through the 2023 cluster (Talking Shadows, This Room is Just For Now, etc.), then circle back to the 2021 “firsts” to feel where it began.

If you’re a teacher, librarian, therapist, or arts programmer, these books do double duty: they are excellent reading and evidence of impact. The Rhyme & Reason framing makes it easy to discuss community benefits, confidence-building, and access needs alongside artistry.

And if you’re an autistic writer wondering whether a group like this might be for you, the anthologies work like an open door: skim a few pages and you’ll hear writers who sound nothing alike except in their insistence on being gloriously themselves.

A final note (and a tiny reading list)

BTS keeps adding to its shelves – 2025 alone brings Us, Words in Flight, The Things That Tug At Me, Hope & Strength, and Earthlings and Aliens – so treat this blog as a snapshot, not a full catalogue. More anthologies are coming in 2026! Bookmark the Library and Archive pages; they’re updated as new volumes land. Better yet, attend a launch if you can: the room design, the pacing, the ease of it all are part of the story these books tell.

If you would like physical copies of any of the anthologies, many of them are still available via WEM: email admin@beyondthespectrum.uk to enquire.

Where to start:

• Rhyme & Reason (2024) – anthology responding to NTU research; available to buy and previously launched at Beeston Library with a neurodivergent-friendly setup.
• Talking Shadows/ Picking Out Thorns/ Nelson’s Noises/ This Room is Just For Now (2023) – a cluster that showcases the project’s widening scope.
• Beyond the First Spectrum Anthology (2021, adults) & Beyond the Spectrum Fist Anthology (2021, young writers) – the origin points.

And if you want a taste of the voices you’ll meet there, carry these whisper-sized lines with you:

“She carries me just as I carry her.” (Lauren Alex Hooper, “Heartstrings”).

“The wood is flawless and soft, still young.” (Lauren Alex Hooper, “Heartstrings”).

“I’d be here unpacking photos & trinkets of family.” (Simon Maddrell, “If I loved Unpacking Boxes”).

They’re small sparks from a much larger blaze. The anthologies hold the bonfire.