Praise for Spelling Love with an X
“In this touching and poignant literary memoir of living with fragile X syndrome, Dunsford . . . shares her journey of discovering a diagnosis for her son J.P. and the reverberations of that diagnosis throughout her family . . . Through vivid descriptions of her relationship with J.P., readers can glimpse the parental highs and lows of life with a child who has developmental delays . . . Recommended for public libraries with parenting and special-needs collections.”
—Library Journal
“Part poetry, part scientific inquiry, this wonderful memoir is, above all, the story of being complexly human in a world filled with fragility and strength, shadow and light. Clare Dunsford navigates the X that has mapped her own and her son's paths with humor, honesty, and clear-sighted intelligence—and in prose that sings.”
—Elizabeth Graver, author of The Honey Thief and Awake
“Clare Dunsford does much more than inform us concerning a disorder we know too little about. Through a prose both lucid and beautiful, she is able to communicate the strangeness, even the poetry, of fragile X.”
—Clara Claiborne Park, author of The Siege: A Family's Journey into the World of an Autistic Child and Exiting Nirvana: A Daughter's Life with Autism
“Spelling Love with an X is one woman’s beautifully written journey toward understanding herself, her son, and the twists of fate and DNA that bind them and all of us. Clare Dunsford's powerful and moving memoir is rich with humor, poetry and, most of all, love.”
—Mitchell Zuckoff, author of Choosing Naia: A Family's Journey