Giaci and Me: A Mother’s Journey of Loving and Raising an Autistic Child released on March 26, and was celebrated with a book launch at the St. Clair Centre for the Arts in Windsor, Ontario.
The book launch was hosted by award winning author Lynn McLaughlin. Joining Rita Miceli and Lynn McLaughlin were writers Alley L. Biniarz, Vanessa Shields, and Joanne Wise, who offered their congratulations and spoke about Rita and her work.
This week, Rita appeared on TVO Today’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin, where she spoke about what influenced her decision to write a book about her experience raising a child with autism. After creating various TikTok videos about how Rita’s family set up their home to accommodate Giaci – who was diagnosed with autism at age two but is now a young adult – Rita started to get questions from parents of children with autism from all over the world. “That’s really how I realized that I needed to take those journal entries and put them together to answer those questions for people starting their autism journey,” said Rita. An insightful book about family and raising a child with autism, Giaci and Me is the result of Rita’s journaling, her family’s lived experience, and her efforts to share the knowledge and perspectives she has gained over the course of her journey.
The full interview can be watched here.
A narrative of Rita’s innermost thoughts, realizations, and fears, this memoir of perseverance serves as a much-needed resource for caregivers and family members of people with autism.
“As I look around the room, I am so humbled and overwhelmed with gratitude by this incredible show of support and encouragement. The beginning of our autism journey seemed like an insurmountable mountain and acceptance felt like uncharted territories that were unknown to me. But the thing about mountains is, is that they are meant to be climbed, and uncharted territories are meant to be explored, and learned about. The story of Giaci and Me is not just mine; it belongs to every parent who has a neurodivergent child. My hope is that if it helps even just one other person, then it’s achieved its purpose.”
An excerpt from Rita Miceli’s speech at the Giaci and Me book launch in Windsor, Ontario.
Since Giaci and Me’s publication date, Rita Miceli and her book have received media attention from CTV News Windsor to CBC syndicated interviews across Canada, including Windsor’s CBC Listen: Afternoon Drive.
Giaci and Me was also a quarterfinalist for the BookLife Prize Nonfiction Contest under the Memoir/Autobiography category. Founded in 2016, the BookLife Prize’s mission is to “discover, cultivate, support, and celebrate great works of unpublished or self-published writing by independent authors.” Winners of the BookLife Prize will receive a Critic’s Report and are given financial support in the form of a cash prize.
About Rita Miceli
A life-long educator of autism and a long-time advocate for autism awareness, Rita Miceli is a contributor in the international bestselling book Ambitious Women Rise: The Amazing Stories of Women Overcoming Obstacles and Creating the Life of Their Dreams. As an educator for over three decades, Miceli teaches in the Autism and Behavioural Science Graduate Program at St. Clair College. She and her family have been featured in The Drive Magazine, on CTV news and on CBC National News, and Rita is the past president of Autism Ontario (Windsor/Essex Chapter). Miceli has published works on multiple platforms related to the topics of special needs and autism, including A Call to Action (Autism Matters) and Words that Connect Us (Canadian Authors Association). Rita lives in Windsor, Ontario, with the love of her life, John, and is the proud mother of three daughters and her autistic son. Rita Miceli won the Best New Canadian Manuscript award from the Word Guild for her manuscript entitled, Giaci and Me: Life Lessons on Raising an Autistic Child. Rita’s short story called “Going to the Dance” has been published on Spillwords Press. https://giaci.ca
Pownal Street Pressis PEI’s newest publishing house. Women owned and women led, friendly, warm and professional: Pownal Street Press brings an approachable perspective to publishing books. With decades’ of experience, Pownal Street Press Co-Founders, Genevieve Loughlin and Mo Duffy Cobb have extensive publishing backgrounds across editorial, book design, marketing and sales. With distribution through Raincoast Books, Pownal Street Press’ titles have national reach but local heart. For more information about the Press and its books, please visit: www.pownalstreetpress.com.