New Poetry Collection Explores One Mother's Personal Journey With Autism

MILWAUKEE - Sept. 13, 2022 - PRLog -- When author Kathie Giorgio's fourth child was born 21 years ago, she thought it would be an easy journey. After all, she was already the mother of three children now into their teenage years. She thought she had experienced it all. But she hadn't experienced autism. Kathie's new poetry chapbook Olivia in Five, Seven, Five: Autism In Haiku (Finishing Line Press) is a volume that explores the challenges of raising a child with autism. It is a personal story.

Olivia was different from her very first day, Kathie writes in the introduction to the volume. She and her husband tried more traditional methods of dealing with autism, then set it all aside to focus on their daughter, her needs, her requests, and her way of reaching out. Now an adult, Olivia is in her senior year of college, having earned a scholarship and a place on the Dean's List. She is majoring in art therapy and is a gifted violinst and writer. She embraces her autism as a unique part of herself.

One April, Kathie challenged herself to write a haiku a day about Olivia and about autism as a way to observe both National Poetry Month and Autism Awareness Month. This book is the result of that challenge. The final poem is by Olivia herself.

A special book launch event is being held at Mount Mary University, hosted by the Department of English, on Wednesday, September 14 at 5:30 PM in the North Dining Hall. Mother and daughter will both take the stage for a reading and discussion.

Kathie Giorgio is the critically acclaimed author of six novels, including The Home For Wayward Clocks, If You Tame Me, and All Told (2022), two story collections, Enlarged Hearts and Oddities & Endings: The Collected Stories Of Kathie Giorgio, a collection of essays and three poetry books. Giorgio's short stories and poems have appeared widely in literary magazines and anthologies. She has been nominated in both fiction and poetry for the Pushcart Prize. Her debut novel The Home For Wayward Clocks won the 2011 Outstanding Achievement Award from the Wisconsin Library Association. Her short story collection Enlarged Hearts earned Giorgio a place on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's "Top 21 Wisconsin Authors of the 21^st Century" list. Giorgio is the founder/director of AllWriters' Workplace & Workshop.

To learn more about Kathie Giorgio at visit kathiegiorgio.org (http://www.kathiegiorgio.org/) and follow her on Twitter @kathiegiorio.

https://www.finishinglinepress.com/